The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has approached the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Nyanya for a date to arraign Anita Anurika Odom, a senior staff member of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), for forgery of academic certificates.
Senior ICPC sources told SaharaReporters that Mrs Odom earlier approached a magistrate court with a civil suit to stop the ICPC from probing and prosecuting her.
However, the suit was dismissed after the ICPC presented to the magistrate, evidence supporting its ongoing case against Mrs Odom at the FCT High Court.
“She has been pulling every string possible to stop the commission from arraigning her in court. She earlier filed a civil suit at the magistrate court, accusing the ICPC of harassing her and to stop her ongoing probe, but she couldn’t prove the allegation in court, and the commission also provided evidence against her to the magistrate, and the matter was done with,” an impeccable source familiar with the matter told SaharaReporters.
SaharaReporters had exclusively reported how Mrs Odom evaded arrest from ICPC operatives in Owerri, Imo State in March, after failing to honour several invitations by the anti-graft agency.
Another source noted that Mrs Odom had got senior and retired security officials within the police and the ICPC to intervene in her case with the anti-graft agency, and stop the commission from arraigning her in court for trial.
“The woman is well-connected. She has been using some senior and retired police officers and ICPC officials to try to stop her arraignment in court,” the source said.
“She knows that she’ll be going to jail once arraigned in court because the commission has all evidence of her forgeries, but we have applied to Justice Ashafa at the FCT High Court for a date for hearing and her arraignment.”
SaharaReporters exclusively learnt that there had been pressures from some top security officials on the ICPC prosecutor to drop the certificate forgery case against Mrs Odom.
However, when contacted for official comment on the development, spokesperson for the ICPC, Okor Odey, confirmed that Mrs Odom’s prosecution is still ongoing, and the civil servant would soon be arraigned in court.
“The matter was not swept under the carpet, it’s ongoing. The commission is waiting for the court to give a date for proper arraignment. We’re prosecuting her (Mrs Odom),” Mr Odey said.
“The prosecution is still on, and we have a watertight case. The case is at Court 23, before Justice Ashafa at the FCT High Court, Nyanya. The commission awaits a date for arraignment from the court.”
Mrs Odom, a Level 13 civil servant with the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS), a department responsible for land records in the FCT, was charged in court by the ICPC for allegedly forging certificates of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to secure employment at the AGIS.
The ICPC accused Mrs Odom of forging a certificate that purports that she graduated from the Department Political and Administrative Studies degree from the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT).
In an affidavit tendered by the ICPC which was obtained by SaharaReporters, the university confirmed in August of 2023 that Mrs Odom was its student at some point but did not graduate.
Aside from the UNIPORT certificate, the ICPC also found that Mrs Odom “holds a fake National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate”.
In an official response to an enquiry by the ICPC, the NYSC denied issuing a certificate to Mrs Odom.
In December 2025, the ICPC in case Number CR/717/2025, charged Ms Odom at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory with four counts bordering on forgery of UNIPORT and NYSC certificates which she used in securing her job at the FCTA.
The offences levelled against Mrs Odom by the ICPC are punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code Act 2000.
Certified true copies of the 44-year-old’s employment records showed that she was employed by the FCTA on August 17, 2009, as an Administrative Officer II, and had since become an Assistant Chief Administrative Officer.
Mrs Odom is an in-law of Chuka Odom, a former Minister of State for the FCT, through whose influence she was employed into AGIS in 2009 despite her questionable educational qualifications.