Muyiwa Johnson 
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) yesterday withdrew and invalidated the certificates of national service issued to 101 graduates from the University of Calabar (UNICAL).
In a statement, the corps said 99 graduates were fraudulently mobilised for national service in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with the remaining two on illegal exemption.
The corps said: “Management of the National Youth Service Corps hereby restates its strong commitment to ensuring that unqualified locally and foreign-trained Nigerian youths, especially those purported to have graduated from unaccredited universities are not recognised, while only qualified persons are issued with NYSC Certificates of National Service.”
It asked corps employers, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), corporate and religious organisations, multinational companies, corps producing institutions and other critical stakeholders to reject graduates with fraudulent NYSC certificates.
The one-year-long national service is compulsory for graduates who are 30 years old or below at the time of completing their programmes. Those over 30 are issued exemption certificates.
Meanwhile, spokesman for UNICAL, Effiong Bassey, said he was not aware of the matter.
