The Chief Judge, who noted that cases of forgery were rampant these days in the country, urged the notaries public to be careful and do their due diligence before endorsing any document. She said each time a forged but endorsed document from Nigeria finds its way into another country, the image of Nigeria and that of the judiciary is tarnished. She, therefore, admonished them to do their job responsibly. The Chief Judge said, “Being a notary public is not something to be taken lightly. It comes with a lot of responsibility and responsibility comes with integrity. “You’re to be sure what you are affixing your seal on. You have to be very careful because your name is at stake when you put your seal on a document. There are many fake documents nowadays. “When a fake document from Nigeria gets to another country, nobody will remember the notary public who endorsed it; it is the image of the country that is smeared; it also tells negatively on the judiciary. “Help us to project a positive image of Nigeria. Do your best; make sure your integrity is not questioned. Protect your name. It takes a lot to build a name but very little to destroy it.” Amongst the appointee is Mr. Festus Keyamo SAN, the spokesman of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 Re-election campaign. Keyamo, who spoke on behalf of the newly sworn-in notaries public, pledged that they would discharge their duties with utmost responsibility. On what the appointment means to one appointee said: “I am delighted to take progressive steps in the legal profession. I set a target for myself that as soon as I have the minimum qualification to apply for the appointment I would so do. “This I did sometime last year having paid my practicing fees consistently for seven years and maintained an active practice in courts. A notary public of the common law is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business. A notary’s main functions are to administer oaths and affirmations, take affidavits and statutory declarations, witness and authenticate the execution of certain classes of documents, take acknowledgments of deeds and other conveyances, protest notes and bills of exchange, provide notice of foreign drafts, prepare marine or ship’s protests in cases of damage, provide exemplifications and notarial copies, and perform certain other official acts depending on the jurisdiction. Any such act is known as a notarisation, according to Wikipedia.]]>

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