The former Director of Mobilisation at the National Youth Service Corps, Anthony Ani, says the certificate of exemption purportedly issued by the NYSC to the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, is fake.

Ani made this known on Wednesday where he said “The NYSC cannot issue that kind of certificate. Yes, the one reported by Premium Times. We could not have issued that type.”

The former NYSC director, who was in charge of deployment of corps members, said Brig. Gen. M. I Tsiga was the Director-General of the NYSC in September 2009 but curiously, it was Brig. Gen. Yusuf Bomoi, who purportedly signed the one belonging to the minister.

Ani added, “The certificate that I saw, that one that I saw if it is the one that they are talking about, the one I saw online, it was not issued by NYSC. I don’t know who issued it. It was not issued by NYSC because what I saw there, the signatory to that certificate was our DG (Gen. Bomoi) who left in January and Gen. Tsiga took over from Gen Bomoi. Tsiga was a sitting DG even as of that September 2009. So, I don’t know where her certificate came from but NYSC cannot make that kind of mistake. The NYSC that I served, I know can never make that kind of mistake.”

He said it was impossible for the NYSC to have issued a certificate of exemption to someone who graduated below the age of 30.

Ani maintained that the only persons exempted from service were those who had served in the police, military or graduated above the age of 30.

The former NYSC director said a person who was 60 years of age would be made to serve if he or she graduated below the age of 30.

Responding to a question, he said, “So, even if you graduate at the age of 20 and you are in the United States and you have not made yourself available to be mobilised, whenever you come back even if you are 60 years, you have to undergo the NYSC.”

Ani noted that it was a crime for anyone to present a forged NYSC certificate to an employer.

He said all employers were mandated to demand NYSC certificates before hiring graduates.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party has cautioned the leadership of the NYSC not to allow the Presidency to coerce it into covering the alleged NYSC Exemption certificate forgery allegation against Adeosun, with a purported investigation.

However, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday,  said it was wrong to say that the Federal Government had not spoken out on the alleged certificate forgery involving Adeosun.

“The government has spoken. NYSC is part of the government and I have nothing to add to what the NYSC has said,” the minister added.