Anambra State Lawmaker, Hon. Emeka Aforka has called for the investigation into the cases of forged certificates and requisite qualifications of officers of the Vehicle Inspection Department of the state Ministry of Transport.
This comes off the petition raised during the second sitting of the Anambra State House of Assembly Committee on Public Petitions which held on Tuesday.
The committee expressed its worry over alleged cases of forged certificates; following a petition by one of the inspection officers, Mr. Charles Ayalogu over falsification, intimidation, and inappropriate placement of staff.
To this end, Chairman of the committee, Hon. Emeka Aforka, called on Mr. Afam Mbanefo, the Commissioner for Transport to probe the several concerns raised in the petition, including requisite qualifications in VIO in relation to the appropriate placement of officers. In addition, he guaranteed that the committee would do everything within its legislative competence to get to the root of the matter targeted at addressing them appropriately.
Furthermore, he advised him to liaise with the office of the Head of Service to equip the committee with all the documents and files of the officers mentioned in the petition to enable the committee to investigate further on forged certificates in the VIO.
His words: “We also advise that nobody should be victimized in course of carrying out his duties. We won’t tolerate any vindictive acts. We want fair treatment for every officer. The constitution empowers us to expose corruption, inefficiency in administration within its legislative powers. We expect to receive all the relevant documents in two weeks’ time to assist us to investigate the matter to a logical conclusion.”
Conversely, Commissioner Mbanefo promised that those found guilty would be dealt with appropriately, in the same vein, the record would be rectified. He also noted that there is a petition on the wrong certification of some Vehicle Inspection Officers who claimed to have Engineering certificates.
Furthermore, he stated that they have written to the Civil Service Commission and Head of Service to provide them with employment details and files to enable them to cross-match it with what they have in their archives.
Mbanefo noted that the petitioner had history issues with writing petitions and also felt like he had not been treated well. However, he stressed that this action will help put everyone in check to ensure the Ministry’s activities are not disrupted.
On his part, Raph Okoye, the General Supervisor, VIO, and Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Public Transport, denied any imposter in his organization, saying all the officers have appointment letters.
He said: “From all the documents submitted so far, I don’t think there’s any pointer that anybody in VIO has the issue of the fake certificate.
He extolled the democratic and civil disposition of the committee; expressing hope that they would dig more to unravel the alleged certificates falsification.
InlandTown! 2020
