Fake national identity cards manufacturer arrested in Mora

Alamine Chachimi has allegedly issued false identity documents to Cameroonians and Nigerians for sums ranging from 40 000 to 100 000 FCFA.

The young man who specialised in manufacturing and signing of fake documents (birth certificates, certificate of loss of the CNI) in Mora in the Extreme North region eventually fell into the hands of the police on August 12, 2015.

According to the L’œil du Sahel newspaper in its edition of Monday, August 17, 2015, it all started with a summons addressed by the regional unit of control in Maroua to the police officer, Licthaossou François.

"He had to justify his signature on many documents such as copies of birth certificates, certificates of loss of CNI intercepted at different controls of the defense and security forces.”

According to the journal, "the police officer demanded for the imitation of his signature and in turn has opened an inquiry. Alamine Chachimi was arrested on August 12, 2015 while he was preparing to issue a certificate of loss of national identity card to a certain Modou Valna.”

A search carried out in his home permitted investigators to lay hands on an 'impressive quantity of photocopies of identity cards. Worse still, he was in possession of three CNI", said the newspaper.

Modou Valna, ‘customer’ of the forger, was also arrested. "I was born in Zelevet. I am from the Mafa ethnic group, but I grew up in Bama in Nigeria. I fled Boko Haram who killed us on the other side and I found myself in Mora. Since my arrival, I went to the headquarters where I was registered and collected my Nigerian card. But one day, people directed me to Alamine Chachimi who demanded 5000 FCFA for the establishment of a provisional document and 35 000 FCFA for the original of the computerized identity card. I am not part of the Boko Haram. At Bama, I worked as a butcher,” he noted.

According to Wang Wore, a police officer and head of the secretariat of the Commissioner, Alamine Chachimi is not new at the commissariat. "Since my arrival in this office, this gentleman came at least three to four times per day to request the establishment of a national identity card or certificate of loss. It did not appear to me clearly and I traced him on a record," said the police officer

According to him "he had come so far with a photocopy of an ID on behalf of M. Malloum Moussa and tried to deceive our vigilance to establish a certificate of loss for M Modou Valna from whom he had collected a sum of 40,000 FCFA at the quarters. “After his home was searched, it was realized that he removed the photos on the CNI and photocopied on others to prove that the card had been issued actually at the police station.

Though the main accused confirmed having collected a sum of 40,000 FCFA from Madou Valna, he denied the facts attributed to him. However, the case troubled the inhabitants of Mora who think that the elements of the Boko Haram sect have benefited from this network to obtain false identity cards.

"Alamine Chachimi issued many documents to individuals or group of individuals. With or without his complicity, the cult took advantage of his network to procure documents since he was known in Mora that he was a sure intermediary. At 40 000 FCFA, imagine what the signing of 200 certificates of loss of CNI can produce?" questioned Han Ismael, a seller in Mora.

The boss of the Commissioner of public safety of Mora expressed "his determination to conduct this investigation to the end"a determination that leaves his colleagues sceptical. For them, Alamine Chachimi has accomplices within the police unit.

"In an area as sensitive as Mora, which has thousands of refugees, and that you entrust a commissariat to someone who is preparing his retirement, it is certain that there may be some mayhem" indicated a policeman stationed at Mora