The National Youth Service Corps has handed over 65 fake graduates apprehended during Batch B Stream 2 orientation course to the police for further investigation and possible prosecution.

The organisation said the corps members were apprehended across the 37 camps for allegedly presenting fake certificates during registration.

It said this was discovered by verification officers in some of the camps during registration.

The NYSC disclosed this in a document obtained by The Nation at the scheme’s headquarters in Abuja.

According to the document, three of the corps members claimed to have graduated from Istop University, Cotonou in Benin Republic, a claim the scheme said was false.

Some of the corps members facing prosecution include: Nasiru Yau, Sheu Muktar, Iliyasu Usman, Offor Blessing Chinelo, Mezenwa Ngozi Chidinma, Nwachukwu Chimaobi Curtis, Ononuju Amarachi Nwamaka, Francis Joseph Arinze and Chigozie Evidence Chijioke.

The paper reads: “The total number of fake corps members nabbed during the 2019 Batch B Stream II orientation course was 65. All of them were handed over to the police for further investigation and prosecution.

“They were picked from different NYSC camps all over the federation.”

In Kano State, the NYSC last week said it rejected a total of 108 prospective corps members posted to the state for presenting questionable certificates among other infractions.

The State Coordinator of the scheme, Mr Ladan Baba said 1,700 prospective corps members were deployed to the state but the office registered 1,592.

“The most worrisome is the fact that some of them did not undergo any academic pursuits but obtained certificates through illegal means with allegations that some did so in Kano and environs,” he had said.

Also on August 30, the NYSC had noted that it nabbed over 50 unqualified graduates who came with fake certificates to the orientation camps and attempted to be registered for the just concluded Batch B Stream II Exercise.

The NYSC authorities said the fake graduates, from various tertiary institutions, “were decamped from the NYSC orientation camps and handed over to the law enforcement agencies for prosecution.”

The NYSC Director of Press and Public Relations, Adenike Adeyemi, explained that the Director-General of the NYSC, Brig Gen Shuaibu Ibrahim, was stern in his warning that unqualified home-based and foreign-trained Nigerians would no longer pass through the scheme.

“The NYSC is committed to stemming the tide of fraudulent mobilisation of unqualified home-based and foreign-trained Nigerians, especially those purported to have graduated from unaccredited universities in the West African sub-region,” she noted. (The Nation)

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