By  Franklin Alli
Three of the alleged suspects in the forgery of SONCAP certificates appeared, Tuesday, before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.

The alleged suspects are being charged for conspiracy, stealing and forgery of SONCAP certificates, even as the Presiding Judge, Hon. Justice M. B. Idris, upheld that the trio (Tochukwu Onyekwere, Charles Nwaobi and Wasiu Bangbola) should be detained in custody pending ruling on October 18, 2010.

Prosecutor in the suit, Inspector General of Police vs Tochukwu Nwaobi and others, Barr. Boniface Asogwa, told the Court: “Beyond forgery of soncap certificates, the offence also involved tampering with revenue generation for the Federal Government under the offshore conformity assessment programme.”

According to him, SONCAP Certificates forgery has been affecting the economy tremendously, as all the money that are supposed to accrue into Federal Government’s revenue are being diverted by “these alleged suspects .

They diverted it for their own private use, and could not allow SON to generate revenue for the Federal Government.”
“Every offences that has to do with the revenue of the federal government is tried by the Federal High Court, and this one is one of such cases.  It is one of the offences at section 251 of the constitution, which the Federal High Court has jurisdiction to hear the case.”

“SONCAP is a Federal legislation, and the constitution is also a Federal legislation.  The offence is very grievous, it’s punishable under section 251 of the constitution of the FRN and attracts 21 year jail term.,”he said.

Vanguard, gathered that the suspects were said to have allegedly forged SONCAP certificates that made it possible for the importation of substandard goods into the country.

Police investigation had revealed that they sold the forged SONCAP certificates to prospective importers for between N15, 000 to N30, 000 instead of the official N250, 000 per container.