The Scheme said this while responding to an inquiry by PremiumTimes on the authenticity of Tunji-Ojo’s NYSC certificate.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has said that it remobilised President Bola Tinubu’s ministerial nominee (now minister-designate), Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, 12 years after he absconded from the service.
The Scheme said this while responding to an inquiry by PremiumTimes on the authenticity of Tunji-Ojo’s NYSC certificate.
SaharaReporters had reported that Tunji-Ojo who is a serving House of Representatives member was enmeshed in a scandal surrounding his NYSC certificate.
According to Tunji-Ojo, he graduated from the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University) where he studied Electronics and Communication Engineering and graduated in 2005 at the age of 24.
However, in the documents presented to the Senate for his confirmation, Tunji-Ojo claimed he was mobilised for the compulsory one-year national service from November 28, 2019, to November 27, 2020, a few months after he was elected a federal lawmaker representing Akoko North Federal Constituency.
His NYSC certificate shows that it was issued in February and signed by Yushau Ahmed, a Brigadier General, who only became NYSC Director-General (DG) in January.
The discrepancies in his NYSC certificate raised red light in the National Assembly as NYSC issues certificates immediately after the completion of the programme and does not reprint lost or damaged certificates.
However, responding to the discrepancies, NYSC said that Tunji-Ojo’s certificate is genuine, explaining that he was first mobilised in 2006 but “absconded from the service.”
According to NYSC, Tunji-Ojo only resurfaced in 2018 and was remobilised in 2019 and deployed to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) in Garki, Abuja, as his place of primary assignment.
The Scheme further explained that Tunji-Ojo’s certificate was however omitted when others were printed in 2020 because “during the passing out, his Certificate of National Service was not available because it was omitted in the Certificate Printing Application.
“He (Mr Tunji-Ojo) applied for his Certificate of National Service through the State Coordinator FCT on 18th October 2022, and the State Coordinator forwarded the same to the Headquarters and his Certificate of National Service No. A004523631 was produced on 28th February 2023 for collection.”