By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Jos – The Anglo-Jos Division of the Nigeria Police Force on Friday arrested a 22-year-old student of Jos ECWA Theological Seminary (JETS), Alamba Denis for defrauding some members of the public to the tune of N85,000.
Denis was arrested for forging the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) skills acquisition form, deceiving his victims that the ITF was collaborating with the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN to empower Christian women and youths.
He confessed that he printed ITF Skills acquisition forms in December, 2021 and was selling them to members of the public at N700 and above depending on the type of skill the buyer intends to learn.
He however exonerated those who assisted him to sell the forms saying he engaged the service of two innocent women to photocopy and sell the forged forms to Christian women and youths in some parts of Plateau State.
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Alamba explained that dragging CAN into his fraudulent act was meant to convince his victims that the deal was genuine hence Christian youths and women would patronize him.
Speaking with Journalists in Jos before being handed over to the Anglo-Jos Police Division for prosecution, he said, “I am a student of Jos ECWA Theological Seminary, I forged ITF form for skills acquisition programme and I was selling it to members of the public.
“I forged the form in December 2021 because I was sent away from school for lack of payment of tuition fee and I had nobody to assist me. That was why I forged the form and I am selling them to pay my school fee.
The fake skill acquisition form recovered from the suspect.
“I printed the original copy and I gave it to two women who were photocopying and selling it to people. The women realized N85,000 from selling the forms and they handed over the money to me.”
Asked about his intention to train the victims, he noted, “It is a lie, there is no skills acquisition programme anywhere, I just wanted to get money out of desperate Nigerians for my school.
“I chose ITF because they normally help people and I brought the name of CAN into the deal because if people see CAN, they will be interested to buy the forms.”
However, the Director of Administration and Human Resources, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Ishola Tajudeen advised Nigerians to be conscious of the activities of fraudsters who are bent on defrauding innocent Nigerians.
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He stressed, “I wish to inform Nigerians that our forms for skills acquisition are not sold, it is free of charge… If we are to recruit, we will advertise in two national newspapers. Our recruitment is always known to Nigerians and it is always free, we don’t collect money from anybody and so don’t give anybody money in the name of recruitment in ITF.”
On how the suspect was apprehended, he added that a distress call was put across to him that their form for skills acquisition programme was on sale to the general public, “when we got the report, we set a machinery in motion to find out if the information was true or not. In the process, I saw a copy of the form being sold to a Nigerian at a fee.”
Tajudeen charged Nigerians to always verify information from credible sources to avoid being victims of fraudsters.
