The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Yushau Ahmed, has announced that the University of Calabar (UNICAL) was involved in a significant certificate fraud scandal.
The scandal involved the fraudulent mobilization of individuals who were not qualified graduates, including a bread seller who had never attended the university.
This disclosure was made in a statement released by the Director of Information and Public Relations of the NYSC, Eddy Megwa.
According to the statement, a total of 54 corps members from UNICAL have been demobilized and are set to face prosecution by the NYSC management. The Director-General vowed that all individuals who were illegally mobilized for the NYSC scheme by the university would be prosecuted.
The shocking details of the fraudulent activities came to light after the NYSC recently invalidated 101 certificates that were obtained fraudulently by individuals who were mobilized by UNICAL during the 2021, 2022, and 2023 service years. This brings the total number of voided certificates to 178, highlighting the scale of the fraudulent activities.
Among those fraudulently mobilized was a bread seller who had never attended the institution. Brigadier General Ahmed expressed his dismay at the discovery, stating, “Previously, a bread seller was mobilized on the graduation list from the same institution. There are bad eggs in many places that generate matriculation numbers and courses for their candidates.”
The Director-General also commended the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Professor Florence Obi, for her honesty in bringing the issue to the attention of the NYSC. Professor Obi had noticed that some names appeared on the institution’s list of graduates, which should not have been there, and promptly reported the anomaly to the NYSC. As a result, the NYSC invalidated the certificates of those individuals.
Brigadier General Ahmed reaffirmed the NYSC’s commitment to cleansing its mobilization process, stating, “The Scheme will leave no stone unturned in sanitizing its mobilization process.” He emphasized the importance of integrity in the NYSC mobilization process and urged all Heads of Corps Producing Institutions and relevant stakeholders in the country to collaborate closely with the NYSC to prevent such fraudulent activities in the future.
The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the 14th Governing Council of the University of Calabar, DIG Udom Ekpoudom (retd), has also weighed in on the issue. He alleged that some officials of the university were behind the massive certificate fraud uncovered by the NYSC. Ekpoudom expressed his disappointment at the discovery and vowed that any officials found to be involved in the fraud would face severe consequences.
He further revealed that investigations have already begun to identify those responsible for the scandal. “The NYSC has done very well to have uncovered this forgery. This is just the first phase. The next phase is for us to find out those behind this saga,” Ekpoudom said. He clarified that the individuals involved were not genuine students of UNICAL, describing them as criminals. Ekpoudom also noted that 19 individuals who initially registered online for NYSC mobilization had been prevented from joining the service, while four Certificates of National Service for other culprits were not produced by the scheme.
