The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has discovered 17 staff members of the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) with fake NYSC exemption certificates.
Four of the suspects were handed over to the police by the corps for onward prosecution while others are to be arrested for prosecution.
Speaking with newsmen at the handing over in Abuja, the NYSC Director of Certification, Alhaji Hudu Aliyu Taura, said the arrest was made possible through the cooperation of their employers, who alerted the scheme for verification of their certificates.
He disclosed that 17 certificates were found out to be fake during the verification exercise carried out by the scheme, adding that three out of the suspects who are currently using the certificates to work in one of the financial institutions bank were on the run.
He assured that the remaining 10 people and those on the run would soon be arrested.
“Some employers came to verify those certificates, specifically GTB sent certificates to be verified by us and in the course of that, we found 17 out of what they sent to be fake. So, we invited them to come with the original of that certificates.
“Only seven came and we took their statements. We verified the certificates and found them to be fake, they were not issued by the NYSC. They confessed to have gotten them from other sources.
“So, with their written statements, we will hand them over to the security agencies for further necessary action.
Taura further said that it had become necessary for the employers of labour to crosscheck with the NYSC to ascertain the genuineness of certificate submitted to them by applicants.
“We are appealing to all employers of labour to bring the certificates that are said to be issued with NYSC for verification. Any time they are employing, they should contact NYSC with the certificates so that we can verify and tell them the genuine ones. Even those that had employed should bring those certificates for verification,” he said.
The suspects confessed to newsmen to have paid money ranging from N25,000, N40,000, N60,000, N20,000 to get the fake certificates.
Source: Tribune