A human rights group, the LYGEL Youths and Leadership Initiative, on Thursday, asked the Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Dr Muheeba Dankanka, to immediately resign over alleged forgery of her academic certificates.

The group threatened that it would go to court to force Dankanka’s exit following the expiration of the one week ultimatum handed down on her.

The human rights group alleged that the FCC chairman forged some of the academic certificates she presented to the Senate during her screening and called on the National Assembly to scrutinise the documents again.

The Executive Secretary, LYLI, Olalekan Oladapo, alleged at a press conference in Abuja that the FCC chairman presented the fake documents in order to hoodwink the Senate and the general public.

But when contacted, Dankaka told The PUNCH that the allegation was an evil “plot by some forces championing a well-coordinated and richly funded campaign” against her.

The FCC chairman, who spoke through her Special Assistant (Media), Abdullahi Idris, stated, “It is not unexpected that when a woman gets married, she takes her husband’s name and the case of Muheeba Dankaka is not different.

“The general public should note that as against the allegation by the LYGEL, Muheeba Dankaka obtained her Master’s degree in 1989 before she got married, which necessitated the change of name.” Idris said, “The President did not make a mistake when he appointed Muheeba Dankaka as the Executive Chairman of the commission in March 2020 to spearhead the required reforms.

“We are glad that the group did not claim that the certificate in question does not belong to the Executive Chairman of the FCC (it only claimed that the name is different from what she bears now). It is, however, surprising that the group did not deem it necessary to find out either by physical request or relying on the FoI Act on what necessitated the change of name.”

Oladapo had said, “We had before now written to the FCC under the FoI Act to furnish us with information concerning the issues of waivers, recruitment, contract awards and balancing index, but no response. We shall therefore not hesitate to drag the FCC chairman to court if she fails to resign from office honourably.

“Dr Muheeba Farida Dankanka is the official name by which the present chairman of the FCC goes. However, a critical and systematic review of the Certified True Copies of the credentials she submitted to the Senate for her screening revealed that this name by which she goes is at variance with the names on all the documents she presented which are different and irreconcilable with each other.”