Olaleye Aluko, Abuja

The National Youth Service Corps has said it will hand over unqualified graduates to the police for prosecution, adding that some of the graduates cannot recite the English alphabet and do not know a bank statement.

The NYSC Director-General, Brig. Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, stated this on Thursday in Abuja at a press conference, noting that according to the NYSC Act, such fake graduates are liable to two years in jail.

Ibrahim also noted that 4,644,804 Nigerians had participated in the scheme since inception in 1973, saying the scheme had been able to achieve national integration.

The DG added that 1,132,409 corps members in all had been equipped with skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development package provided by the scheme.

He said, “We have already informed all the corps producing institutions of our intention to blacklist any of them that engage in this act of presentation of unqualified persons for mobilisation.

Let me reiterate our warning that any person who presents a fake certificate in an attempt to get mobilised for service will be handed over to security agencies. We are working on fake corps members. They will be arrested and prosecuted.

“If I give you some of the write-ups of the graduates; some were told to write ABCD, they could not. They could not say what a bank statement is. They don’t know. If I show you their papers, you will feel sad. Some people have asked me if NYSC has the power to crosscheck the certification of graduates, I said no, but we have the power to ensure that unqualified Nigerians are not mobilised for service.”