Three prospective corps members found with fake certificates have been arrested in Taraba State.
The Coordinator of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) in Taraba, Mrs Florence Yaakugh, confirmed this to Channels Television on Friday.
She explained that the suspects were handed over to the police and other security operatives for further investigation after they were discovered at the camp in Jalingo, the state capital.
Mrs Yaakugh noted that the three persons were prospective batch B corps members who were caught with fake documents by the verification officer.
She identified the suspects as Nasiru Yau, who claimed to have studied Mass Communication, Shehu Murktar – Computer Science and Illiyasu Usman – sociology, all from the Isfop University of Kotonu in the Republic of Benin.
“They came for registration and the verification officer discovered them with fake certificates and verification papers,” said the NYSC coordinator.
She added, “If you will recall, the Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier General Shauibu Ibrahim had recently expressed deep concern over the activities of fake corps members who cannot make a correct sentence in the English Language.
“He (Ibrahim) directed us to check and fish out such persons and hand them over to the security operatives for further investigation and this is what we are just doing.”
According to Yaakugh, preliminary investigation revealed that the persons involved cannot write or say anything logical about their courses of study.
She urged the security operatives to do a thorough job to ensure facts were uncovered and justice was done to the affected persons.
The NYSC coordinator said there was a similar case involving a female corps member, also a foreign student but the verification officer has yet to conclude internal investigation into her case.
In their reactions, the suspects claimed to have graduated from the institution but admitted to forging their verification papers.
Yau said, “I gained admission through an agent and graduated but when he came to Nigeria for computer verification, they disqualified him on the grounds that he forged the verification paper to enable him go to the camp.
On his part, Murktar explained that he collected the verification paper from his friends and photocopied, then filled in his information.
The third suspect, Usman said he sent some people working at the computer centre to get his verification paper for him, adding that he thought it was real.
