NYSC certificate forgery – NYSC disowns finance minister’s exemption certificate
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun
The National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) has disowned the purported exemption certificate in Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun’s possession.
The NYSC was reacting to the exclusive story published by PREMIUM TIMES at on Saturday detailing how Mrs Adeosun skipped the mandatory national service and forged an exemption certificate of the service to cover for it.
The story has generated outrage from many Nigerians who asked the minister to resign from her post or be fired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to premium times, the certificate is among the set of documents submitted by the minister in 2015 for her appointment and screening.
They took a copy of the ‘certificate’ to the NYSC and requested the agency to determine its authenticity. But in what is a veiled admission that the document did not emanate from it, the agency said it would investigate the origin of the certificate.
A statement by the NYSC’s director of public relations, Adenike Adeyemi, emailed to PREMIUM TIMES said the service will “investigate the origin of the purported Exemption Certificate in question”.
The statement, however, said Mrs Adeosun applied for exemption. It was, however, silent on when the application was made and what decision was taken on it.
According to Premium, they wrote to the NYSC on April 16, 2018 for the first time, requesting verification of the certificate.After weeks of silence and promises, the newspaper’s editors re-channeled the request through a Freedom of Information request.
A reporter who was at the NYSC headquarters on Thursday, May 31, was told to come back the next day to pick up the organisation’s response to the letter, following intense checks that afternoon that confirmed that “Folakemi Adeosun” was not in the register. However, on arriving on Friday, June 1 to pick the response, a new decision was announced; the NYSC officials said the verification has been channeled to the organisation’s ICT unit to check its “electronic database.”
Frustrated by the sudden back-tracking by the agency, premium times on June 8, delivered a Freedom of Information request to the NYSC headquarters which is yet to be responded to.
The FoI Act mandates agencies to respond to requests within one week or write to seek extension if unable to comply within the stipulated time.
Read the full NYSC statement below;
PRESS RELEASE
RE-EXEMPTION CERTIFICATE OF THE HON. MINISTER OF FINANCE, MRS. KEMI ADEOSUN
Checking our records, Mrs. Adeosun did apply for an Exemption Certificate.
We shall investigate the origin of the purported Exemption Certificate in question.
Thank you.
Adeyemi Adenike (Mrs.)
Director, Press and Public Relations