Shittu asks court to order NYSC to issue him certificate

The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, yesterday asked a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan to order the National Youth Service Corps to issue him a discharge letter or an exemption certificate for his one year mandatory service.

Shittu, in the suit brought pursuant to certain provisions in the NYSC Act 1973 and the provisions in the 1979 and 1999 Constitutions, presented four issues before the court for determination.

He asked the court to determine whether by the NYSC not issuing him a callup notice to participate in the scheme, he would have become legally obligated to present himself before he attained the age of 30.

He also prayed the court to decide whether the nonissuance of a call-up notice by the NYSC to enable him take part in the one-year service after his university education at the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, and his call to Bar in 1979 did not amount to a waiver for him or abandonment of duty by the NYSC.

The third issue was whether his membership of the Oyo State House of Assembly from 1979 to 1983 did not qualify as or was not equal to his rendering of national service as envisaged in the NYSC Act as well as the spirit behind the introduction of the scheme.

The minister, in an originating summons filed before the court, also sought the decision of the court on whether possession of NYSC discharge or exemption certificate is one of the requirements for holding the office of a minister or seeking election as a governor or a senator under Sections 65, 147 and 177 of the 1999 Constitution.

He also sought a perpetual injunction restraining the NYSC from imposing any liability on or making him to suffer any liability, civil or criminal, as a result of his “purported non-service under the NYSC scheme.”