By Archibong Jeremiah
Information reaching CrossRiverWatch has it that some staff in the office of the Cross River State Surveyor General, Surveyor Eyo Oku, are in the business of faking signatures and professional seals, issuance of fake survey plans, certificates of lodgements and charting.
The reliable source within the Surveyor General’s office who doesn’t want to be named disclosed that “some have been caught perpetuating the act but went unpunished.”
CrossRiverWatch obtained a ring of fake survey plans and other documents which were forged by members of the cartel.
The forged documents were said to have been reported to the Surveyor General but efforts are on to shield the perpetrators from justice because, according to our source, “If they allow full investigation and possible prosecution of the culprits, plenty ogas in the office will go down with them because they are working in tandem.”
CrossRiverWatch further gathered that some of the signatures were forged for a church that wanted to re validate their documents as far back as 2010, by two men and one drafts-man in Ikom, who happens to be a pastor with Apostolic Church.
The document has now been discovered to be riddled with fake signatures of persons who were not connected to the transaction.
The pastor has been invited by the Police in Ikom and CrossRiverWatch gathered he has accepted guilt and is willing to name his collaborators in the Surveyor General’s office.
A retired Director from the office of the Surveyor General who pleaded to remain anonymous confirmed to CrossRiverWatch that, the cartel has a network spanning the entire State and makes use of quacks too in producing survey plans.
He added that the practice has been ongoing in the department for over a decade with very little political will to address the menace both by the leadership of the department and the leadership of the Institute of Surveyors.
When a call was placed to the State Surveyor General by our reporter, he said: “My staff cannot collaborate with quacks rather it is one or two of the practising surveyors that are fond of buying numbers and using other surveyors’ number. I’m in a meeting.” And dropped the call.
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