The National Examinations Council have been dismissed 70 of its staff over certificate forgery.

This was made known through a statement by the Head of Information and Public Relations Division, Azeez Sani, in Minna, Niger State.

It was gathered that the dismissal affects mostly the junior staff while substantial number of the senior staff were affected.

According to the statement, the dismissal of the staff was as a result of a report submitted by a committee constituted to verify the certificates of staff by the management of NECO.

Further investigation by NECO revealed that when the body approached the schools of the affected staff where they claimed they had attended, the various institutions denied issue such certificates to the affected staff.

The statement reads, “The Certificate Verification Committee carried out its assignment diligently by inviting all staff with questionable credentials to appear before it, during which some staff actually attested that their certificates were fake.

“The committee also contacted the schools and institutions the affected staff claimed to have attended and the schools and institutions denied having certificated them.”

According to the statement, this will be the first phase of the dismissal of staff as more verification was still going on to reveal more people in the organisation.