Senior Special Assistant on youth development to Delta state governor, Mr. Hope George, is said to be embroiled in an alleged forgery scandal.
HardReporters reliably gathered that, Mr. George, who was the immediate past chairman of the Delta state chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, (NYCN), in a bid to force his younger brother on the council as Secretary, alleged went and forged a West Africa Examination Certificate (WAEC) and age declaration affidavit for the younger brother to enable him contest the council election early this year.
An executive member of NYCN who pleaded for anonymity confided in our Abuja correspondent of HardReporters in Abuja that at the heat of the election in January this year, “Hope George claimed that his younger brother was been oppressed by the election committee and therefore used his influence as SSA on youths development to governor Ifeanyi Okowa to disrupt the election that was scheduled for January 11 2017.”
Another source told our correspondent that, the two documents bearing Kenneth George, younger brother to Okowa’s SSA, were allegedly forged by the governor’s SSA.
“The thing is that, Hope George wanted to impose his younger brother, George Kenneth, on the youths as Secretary of the state chapter of NYCN but the discrepancies in the documents led to a misunderstanding between Hope George and the Directorate of Youth when the latter disqualified the former’s younger brother on the ground of inconsistency in his document vis-a-vis his age declaration.
“The matter got to the Governor who in turn told the Chief of Staff to verify the authenticity of the controversial affidavit. The Chief of Staff investigated the matter to the point of going to the High court where the affidavit was supposedly sworn.
The matter took another turn when the court denied the authenticity of the affidavit claiming that it did not originate from the court thereby invalidating Hope George’s claim that the court issued the affidavit to him.” our source alleged.
According to a former executive member of NYCN, who condemned the action of the SSA, described the development as unfortunate, alleging that George has always been a questionable character.
“At that point, Hope George discovered that his game was up and the only option he had left was to beg the parties involved to treat the matter as top secret. Before his appointment as SSA to Okowa, his major business was certificate forgery and alteration of documents and even after his appointment, he’s still deeply rooted in the illegal business.
“The appointment of persons with questionable characters is one very big disadvantage of the Okowa led PDP government in Delta state. It would be catastrophic and detrimental to the welfare and morality of the youths of Delta state if an unrepentant criminal is allowed to continue to be SSA to the Governor on issues concerning the youths in the state. Hope George has penchant for crime, voodoo and women of easy virtues and is therefore not morally qualified to represent the youths of Delta state in the Government.” the member alleged.
A member of the youth council who simply gave his name as Daniel, and familiar with the development, blamed governor Okowa for not carry out proper checks on his would be aides, before issuing appointment letters to persons with questionable characters.
“With the appointment of Hope George without a background check on his previous fraudulent activities, it is an unquestionable fact that PDP has no love for merit and credibility. Deltans deserve better. I, on behalf of other well meaning Deltan youths and Deltans in general, call on security agencies and the Delta State Government to arrest Hope George immediately and we also implore Governor Okowa to strip him off his appointment as SSA on Youths Development with immediate effect.” Daniel stated.
All efforts to reach the Senior Special Assistant on youth development to the Delta state governor, Mr. Hope George were unsuccessful as all calls to his mobile line were rebuffed as at the time of filing in this report.
