Omoleye Famuyiwa Joseph, an imaginary name, has been changed to Olayewa Olakunle Ajaleye during an undercover investigation at the High Court, Maitama, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and High Court of Justice in Nasarawa State by The Quest Times.
The investigation reveals a rampant lack of due diligence, open corruption and the indiscriminate issuance of the important document in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
In this undercover investigation, The Quest Times also revealed how one can change his identity for a paltry sum of N1500 in 30 minutes. This perhaps explains why identity theft and impersonation are common crimes in Nigeria.
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Given how easy it is to obtain change of name affidavits from Nigerian courts without diligent checks by Judiciary staff, the Quest Times Correspondents on Friday went undercover by visiting the High Courts in the two locations to investigate the porous process of acquiring a change of name affidavit.
*At High Court of Justice, Maitama, Federal Capital Territory
“What do you want to do?” A security man asked our reporter at the entrance of the High Court in Maitama, Abuja. After telling him that it’s just a change of name affidavit, he said “write your name here and go to ‘process’, it’s by your right hand side when you get to the corridor. You will do your capturing there. It’s N1,550.”
“What about paper publication?” asked our reporter.
“We can also get it done for you,” came the response.
But when our reporter told him that he is doing it for someone in absentia, he immediately called a man beside him to attend to our reporter.
“Since the person is not here, you will bring his passport, signature and N4,000,” he said.
However, 30 mins after paying the requested amount and making available a passport with signature, the affidavit was ready.
Our reporter who stood outside the building while waiting for the process to be completed, noted that many people were going in and out of the court for their affidavits without any due process whatsoever.
*At High Court of Justice in Mararaba, Nasarawa State
While advancing towards the High Court gate at Mararaba in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa, a state that shares a boundary with Abuja, our correspondent was approached by three individuals whom he later discovered were change of name agents working in cahoots with some court officials to process affidavits for people with an extra charge.
The agents were heard saying, “Sir, what do you want to do? Is it an affidavit? Come let me do it for you sir, it’s very easy sir.”
Our correspondent then agreed to the offer and was taken to an office inside the court building by the agent where he met with a court official.
The court official asked, “what do you want to do?”
Our correspondent replied, “change of name affidavit for my client who just got married.”
Without demanding for any means of identification, passport photograph or the marriage certificate, the court official brought out a white sheet of paper for the names to be written on and collected a token of N1,500 and in less than five minutes, brought the change of name affidavit, signed and stamped the document, without our correspondent or the said “client” appearing before the commissioner for oath, neither was there a request for a video call with the deponent.
While leaving the High Court premises, more people were seen entering and being directed by the agents standing outside the gate to various offices for affidavits without rigorous checks on their identities.
The Quest Times investigation revealed that anybody can walk into the High Court of Justice of Nasarawa State of Nigeria located in Mararaba to obtain a change of name affidavit without proper checks or without following due process; and such affidavits could be used for impersonation, identity theft etc.
*Typical Process For Change Of Name
A source at one of the FCT High Courts told The Quest Times that the typical process for change of name, aside newspaper publication, is to depose an affidavit stating the new name and old name before a commissioner for oath.
The source further stated that there have been instances where commissioners for oath were paid a certain amount of money to be more liberal with the system, adding that some commissioners for oath have lost their jobs, while others were recalled from the civil service when caught in the act.
He said; “The typical process for change of name aside from newspaper publication to that effect, is that you will file an affidavit stating your old name as well as your new name. You can choose to indicate the reason for the change. There is also a clause stating that all your certificates and documentation carrying your old name are still valid. The bottomline is that, you need to depose to an affidavit before a commissioner for oath stating that “this used to be your name and this is your new name.”
“You will think that a means of identification is necessary for this kind of transaction but inasmuch as it is necessary, it is not compulsory, because nobody will envisage a situation whereby somebody that is not the owner of the name will want to change it, plus you are going to be attaching your passport photograph as well as signing this affidavit before a commissioner for oath.
“So if the person coming to process the whole change of name is not the same person on the photograph, it is going to raise eyebrows, that is not to say there have not been times or there cannot be instances where that will happen.
“There have been instances where the commissioner for oath has been paid a certain amount of money and they tend to be more liberal with the system, but the system that is in place does not allow that level of freedom, so to speak. And for what it’s worth, commissioners for oath that have gambled with things like this have actually lost their jobs, some have been recalled from the civil service when caught in the act.
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“Now, the court has put a system in place where when you go to court to do this change of name, there is somebody that you will be directed to that will do the whole typing out of your affidavit the way it’s supposed to be just so that it contains everything vital that needs to be included.
“It doesn’t change the fact that there are instances where people that are the deponent cannot be before the commissioner for oath. So, they pre-do the affidavit, take it to court or maybe someone helps them take it to court, already signed.
“What the commissioner for oath would do or the system they try to adopt just in a bid to not make it seem like they are trying to allow you get away with something that is not supposed to be, is that technology has improved a lot of things, so you’ll find a situation where the commissioner for oath will ask the person that has come before the commissioner for oath with this affidavit to put a video call through to the deponent and he sees the deponent.
“There are times that they even go further by asking the deponent during the cause of that call to sign their signature and show it to the commissioner so that the commissioner for oath can juxtapose and see that the signature that they have signed during the course of the call and that on the affidavit are one and the same.
“After all of this vetting, then the commissioner for oath can now append his signature and stamp to the affidavit and you can go ahead with your newspaper publication. This is after you have made the appropriate payments for the affidavit. So that is just the entirety of the legal process involved in a change of name,” the source said.
*Disregard for legal procedures
As Nigeria grapples with the lack of a central database of its citizens, despite claims that billions of naira have been spent to build such a system, anyone, even foreigners, can change their identities for as little as N1,500 with the same process.
The implications of this could be grave for crime control and administration of justice, as criminally minded persons can wantonly change identity or assume another person’s identity to commit crimes.
The Quest Times Investigations revealed that the legal procedures to obtain an affidavit and the due process required to change one’s name and identity, are hardly followed by government officials.
An Abuja based lawyer who spoke with The Quest Times quoted article 117(4) of the 2011 Evidence Act, which provides that “an affidavit when sworn shall be signed by the deponent or if he cannot write or is blind, marked by him personally with his mark, in the presence of the person before whom it is taken.”
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He said, “Deponents to an affidavit must appear in person before a commissioner for oaths. Articles 108, 115 and 117-119 of the 2011 Evidence Act describe the procedural requirements for obtaining an affidavit. It provides that deponents are required to state their full name, trade, profession, residence, and nationality.”
He added that, “deponent will approach either a commissioner for oaths at the court and is expected to pay the requisite fee, after which he will be issued a receipt.”
The identity of the deponent “will be verified,” by checking a “passport or national ID card” with the commissioner saddled with the responsibility of verifying “the facts of the deponent’s statement by asking questions and requesting the deponent to present any evidence, as needed, to ascertain the facts.”
The deponent “will now swear to the information and sign the affidavit”, following which the oaths commissioner will “sign and seal the affidavit.”
He concluded that the law officers circumvent these procedures exposing the nation and innocent citizens to potential and insidious harm.
The Quest Times investigation revealed that requirement of the registrar or commissioner for oaths identifying the person who is swearing to the oath by means of national identity card, national driver’s license, international passport, voters card or passport photograph and “that identification of the deponent must be ascertained before the affidavit is commissioned”, is hardly ever followed.
The President of the Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network, Olu Omotayo, had earlier said that “the position of the law both under the Oaths Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004 and the provisions of the Evidence Act is that a deponent to an affidavit must appear in person before the commissioner for oaths, to make an oath.
“But the reverse is the case now as people in connivance with agents loitering around court premises procure all these affidavits at will and freely.”
*Security features
In the sworn affidavits issued by Nigerian courts, checks revealed that there are no security features of any sort to prevent fraud.
One police source stated that it is “almost impossible” to determine the authenticity of such a legal document on the spot.
However, legal experts argue that an affidavit often carries the signature of the deponent and that of the commissioner for oaths. It also carries the seal of the court. Yet, the policeman argued further that the seal does not establish an affidavit’s authenticity as all fake ones also carry the seal and that civil servants working in courts sometimes forge the signatures of the commissioner for oaths.
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Court records are also not reliable because the judiciary relies heavily on filing papers which become damaged due to bad weather and time. There is no central database to check against insidious multiple change of names and date of birth.
This situation, many believe, has made it easy for Nigerian politicians to change their names to hide a hideous past and their dates of birth to qualify for a position. Many politicians and employees are said to have ‘official’ age often different from their real age.
Even job seekers in Nigeria carry multiple age declaration certificates obtained from courts and use them to apply for jobs depending on the age requirement.
Sometimes, this fraud is taken to an international level and it all boils down to the country’s judicial system issuing questionable affidavits.