PREMIUM TIMES reported that the NYSC noted that the university illegally mobilised the graduates for national service.
The Management of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, has reacted to the recent withdrawal and invalidation of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificates issued to about 101 purported graduates of the university.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported that NYSC noted that the university illegally mobilised the graduates for national service.
A statement by the corps management said that the graduates included 99 who were illegally mobilised for national service during the 2021, 2022, and 2023 service years. The remaining two persons were said to have been granted exemption certificates illegally.
The one-year-long national service is compulsory for Nigerian graduates who are 30 years old or below when completing their academic programmes. Those over 30 are issued exemption certificates.
Generally, graduates must present their NYSC certificates to be eligible for a job at par with their educational status.
University reacts
A statement signed by UNICAL Registrar Gabriel Egbe and shared with PREMIUM TIMES noted that it was the university that discovered and exposed the fraudulent upload of unqualified candidates for NYSC mobilisation on its portal by reporting the development to the agency and other authorities.
"It should be noted that it was the university management that exposed this criminal act and brought it to the attention of NYSC and other organisations, and not the other way round," Mr Egbe wrote.
UNICAL said the identified persons did not graduate from the university as their details were not contained in the university records, including Senate Approved Results and the list mobilising its graduates for NYSC.
"Not having these names in our graduation or mobilisation list clearly means that their certificates purportedly from our university are also fake," he said.
The university also noted that it constituted an investigative committee, which found 178 persons involved and was submitted to the management of the NYSC.
He noted that the investigation necessitated the suspension of the Data Entry Officer, Obi Endurance, now being investigated by ICPC.
How it all started
According to Mr Ogbe, internal sources in the university found in September 2023 that an individual who had not graduated was on national service and was said to have been mobilised by the university.
"We quickly launched an investigation which confirmed the allegation and revealed ten more cases of infiltration of the NYSC portal," he said.
The university said it, therefore, wrote NYSC in October 2023, asking the agency to apprehend and prosecute the 11 identified persons. It also claimed that it wrote to the ICPC Uyo Resident Office seeking intervention on the matter.
"On the 24th of October, NYSC responded in line with our resolve to launch a full-scale investigation into the issue," he added.
He said that while the university agreed to work quietly with NYSC and security agencies to apprehend the culprits, it also set up a full-scale investigative committee.
Mr Egbe said the committee concluded its work on 18 December 2023 and found 167 new cases of 'criminal infiltration of the portal, making a total of 178 persons'. It notified the NYSC of the committee's findings on 5 November 2023.
He added that the individuals were not found in the university records of graduates as they were not found in the Senate Approved Results (SAR), summary list (for printing of certificates), and master list (in NYSC format for upload).
"Categorically, the names were not presented by the departments and were not uploaded on the portal; hence, they are not found in the hard copies printed from that portal and presented to NYSC in pre-mobilisation workshops," he said.
"In other words, these unqualified people were not mobilised by the university, as a matter of fact, but were somehow smuggled into the portal, from where we do not know."
He noted that the investigation necessitated the suspension of the Data Entry Officer, Obi Endurance, who he added is being investigated by ICPC.
Mr Egbe added that the university wrote the NYSC on 1 February with the findings and recommendations of its investigation, including the details of the 178 names, "stating their suspicious matriculation numbers and departments."
"The same letter was forwarded to ICPC, Abuja Office, Federal Ministry of Education and NUC urging those agencies and organisations to assist the university investigate further, apprehend and deal with the culprits accordingly," he added.
University assures public
Meanwhile, the university has assured the public that it remains committed to maintaining the culture of excellence, which it noted it fought hard to enthrone since 2021 despite the odds.
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The statement further noted: "The release by the Corps is a sequel to the above developments. Mentioning the University of Calabar in this saga does not, and should not, in any way diminish the phenomenal achievements already recorded by the present university administration in an all-round re-positioning for efficiency.
"We share the confidence that, in the same patriotic spirit of exposing these 93 names as we had urged, NYSC would equally issue a release about the remaining 85 persons out of the 178 reported by the university without any prompting."
The university also called on the ICPC to conclude its investigation to truly unravel what has remained a mystery to the university's management, as it strongly believes that the invalidation of the certificates or 'De-Kitting' of the culprits alone will not unmask the faces behind this fraudulent act.
"We cherish NYSC as a partner in progress and wish to use this opportunity to appreciate and restate our commitment to working with the Corps and other relevant agencies to unravel the source of infiltration of the mobilisation portal that is strictly regulated by NYSC," he added.
