TheCable

The house of representatives has urged the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to rescind its ban on graduates of Benue State University from participating in the scheme.

The house waded into the matter after it was brought up by Emmanuel Orker-Jev, a lawmaker from Benue state.

TheCable reported how the graduates were banned for allegedly falsifying ages.

Awakessien Eno, NYSC Benue state coordinator, had said it was discovered that student officers fielded names of over-aged students or names of students that studied courses that were excluded from NYSC mobilisation.

“An audit was carried out in most of the institutions nationwide and eventually, six major institutions were affected and many of them are actually from Benue State,” she said.

Raising the motion on Thursday, Orker-Jev accused the NYSC of carrying out the decision without duly consulting the university.

He said the ban “has brought untold hardship on many innocent graduates who have not been included in the allegation but are eager to serve the nation”.

The lawmakers adopted the motion and urged the relevant committees to follow up on the matter.

The university had on Wednesday denied knowledge of the allegations.

“The NYSC did not inform us that it had issues with the current list of prospective corps members from our university,” Msugh Kembe, vice-chancellor of the university, had said.

“But we are doing our investigation to find out whether the fault is from the JAMB, NYSC or the university. But I assure that if the problem is from our school, we will fish out the culprits and sanction them.”