The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has warned prospective corps members with fake credentials to stay off Orientation Camps across the country.
This was contained in a statement on Sunday by Adenike Adeyemi, Director, Press and Public Relations, ahead of the 2020 Batch ‘A’ Orientation Course.
NYSC warned that anyone caught with the intent to undermine the integrity of its mobilisation process with fake certificates would be arrested and prosecuted.
The statement quoted the Director-General, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim of issuing the warning in Abuja.
Ibrahim stated that the NYSC had put necessary mechanism in place to curb the enrollment of fake graduates for the orientation course, and would continue working diligently in that direction.
Ibrahim revealed that during the 2019 Batch ‘C’ online registration, over 20,000 foreign-trained Nigerians uploaded their results online but only 3,420 appeared for physical verification because most didn’t have genuine certificates.
He said:
“The scheme recently had a meeting with the Registrars and Student Affairs Officers of some African Universities and read the riot act to them, including the Vice-Chancellors, Rectors and Provosts in the country on the need to sanitise the mobilisation process.
“The NYSC alone cannot do it, we need other stakeholders to assist us and we have started the process and l am sure things are getting better.
“I want to appeal to our youths to do the right thing and not to cut corners in whatever they do in life, because there is always a reward for hard work,” he added.
The NYSC boss appealed to members of the public not to fall prey to the antics of online scammers that promise preferential deployment, internal posting, relocation and other services for a fee.
The DG added that no corps member would be deployed to any state where there is security breach.
He appealed to corps members not to endanger themselves through risky adventures and unauthorised journeys.
Ibrahim advised them to be security conscious at all times, board vehicles from only authorised motor parks and not by the roadside.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK