The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has uncovered 95 graduates with fake certificates from Nigeria and foreign universities.
Speaking during the 2019 Batch ‘C’ pre-mobilization workshop on Wednesday in Minna, the Director-General of the NYSC, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, said the affected persons were handed over to security agencies during the last orientation exercise.
The NYSC boss, said 65 out of the affected graduates were from universities in Nigeria, while 30 were from other West African universities.
“Regarding fraudulent certificates, we have apprehended 65 fake students from universities in Nigeria and from other West African universities, we have arrested about 30. We have handed them over to the police for prosecution,” he said.
According to him, some tertiary institutions in Nigeria still engage in the sale of Degree and HND certificates and Statement of Result to unqualified persons in a bid to ‘‘smuggle them in for NYSC’’.
He also lamented that the act was threatening the credibility of the NYSC mobilization process and has implications.
“It is worrisome to note that some unscrupulous persons still indulge in the sale of Degree and HND certificates and Statement of Results to unqualified persons. It has also been observed that names of unqualified persons are included in the Senate/Academic Board approved list uploaded on the NYSC registration portal by some corps producing institutions.
“It is quite unfortunate that some corps producing institutions are still in the habit of uploading part-time and over-aged graduates for mobilization. This is one of the challenges we are out to tackle headlong, this attempt in some quarters to threaten the credibility of the process.
“Acts such as presentation of fake academic credentials and attempts to smuggle names of unqualified persons into the mobilization lists submitted by some corps producing institutions are condemnable and will continue to face stiff resistance from the scheme,” he pointed out.
He threatened to blacklist any institution caught in the act.
The Director-General also said the pre-mobilization workshop is organised to draw a roadmap for the eradication of all observed anomalies as well as enthronement of integrity in the mobilisation process, adding that the workshop will also come up with more strategies to curb fraudulent practices and enhance the efficiency of the mobilization process.
Also speaking, the Director of Mobilization, Mrs. Victoria Ango, decried the scourge of fraudulent enrolment of foreign-trained graduates for national service.
“It is sad to admit here that on the local scene, issues such as deliberate enlistment of over-aged and part-time graduates, mischievous mobilization of graduates of unapproved courses through cross-matching with approved departments and suspicious insider connivance to hack and upload unqualified persons have not yet abated,” she noted.
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