POLICE MOVE AGAINST NWOYE OVER ALLEGED CERTIFICATE FORGERY

Indications emerged yesterday that the Police Criminal Investigation Department, CID, has begun the probe of Mr. Tony Nwoye, who won the governorship primaries of the Emeakayi-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Anambra State over allegations of certificate forgery and impersonation.
The probe is sequel to several petitions by aspirants and other stakeholders in the state.
Nwoye was earlier disqualified from contesting the primary by the party’s screening committee over alleged falsification of tax clearance certificates.
He was also accused of impersonation by claiming to be a medical doctor.
But he challenged the disqualification. In an affidavit, Nwoye dismissed the allegation as a tissue of lies, saying he met the basic educational requirements to be a governor, which is secondary school.
Efforts made to speak to him however proved abortive as his phone line was unreachable.
But one of his close aides said the allegations of forging tax clearance certificates were false, stating that the former Student Union leader and former PDP state chairman is a good and honest man, even as he attributed the allegations to political opponents.
A police source, which did not want his name mentioned, confirmed the probe of Nwoye to National Mirror yesterday.
The source said the investigation was aimed at unraveling the truth about his certificate claims and the documents he pleaded in the form he submitted to the PDP.
“Part of what we are investigating is that a close observation of his PDP nomination form and the Tax certificates showed several incongruities.
“For example, in his nomination form, he claimed under ‘Educational Institutions attended with dates’ that he attended Community High School Nsugbe from 1987 to 1991 and Metropolitan Secondary School, Onitsha from 1991 to 1992 respectively.
“But on qualifications, he said that he obtained the senior secondary school certificate/GCE between 1987 to 1993, instead of 1992 earlier written. However, in another breadth, he addressed himself in one of the tax clearance certificates he submitted as ‘Dr. Tony Nwoye’ and under source of income he wrote ‘Medical Practice’.
“Besides, a careful study of his Income Tax certificates, showed irregularities in dates, sources of income, title and total taxable income.
“Nwoye is said to have presented three different tax certificates from FCT (Garki), Anambra (Awka) and Enugu for the period 2008 to 2012. We will investigate all these,” the source said.
Political opponents of Nwoye such as Dr. Andy Ubah and Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu had equally made similar allegations of certificate forgery against him.
The allegation was one of the grounds upon which Ukachukwu obtained court injunction against Nwoye and the PDP from the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt.
Source: National Mirror