Date: 2018-02-03

A group of Kwara State civil servants on Thursday sent a "Save Our Soul" (SOS) message to the state Government and authority of Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti over verification of their certificates.

The leader of the group, Mr. Fatai Musa, told newsmen in Ilorin that their certificates were original and genuine, but to their surprise the Kwara Government and Ekiti State University had not found a common ground of verification.

"We are the first set of the Sandwich Programme at the Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin, affiliated to the University of Ado-Ekiti as it was then.

"It was during the Kwara Government verification exercise that we were told that our certificates cannot be authenticated.

"We asked that the state government liaise with the authority of University Ado Ekiti to resolve the matter, but we were told our certificates are suspected to be fakes.

"Authority of University of Ado Ekiti is claiming they cannot find records of over 40 people that graduated in 2000.

"One of us had used his B.Sc certificate to pursue a Master Degree programme in the same university without any hassle and he has graduated.

"We are surprised that documents for a whole department (Health Education of 1997-2000) were nowhere to be found in the University and the affiliated college" Musa said.

The Group's spokesman, who displayed the certificate of group members, said the affected civil servants urged the state government to look into the matter and take its time to work with the university.

"Our salaries have been stopped and we can confirm to you that we have no skeleton in our cupboards.

"If we have anything to hide we won’t come out to the public to address you.

"We are also calling on the authority of Ekiti State University to liaise with the Centre in Ilorin to resolve this matter as our over 30 years in service is at stake.

"We are surprised that this is happening to us today because we have documents to prove payment of school fees to the University of Ado Ekiti.

"We are ready to submit ourselves to any scrutiny in order to find solution to this issue because our certificates are original and genuine" Musa said.