Project (SERAP), has sued the National Youth Service Corps and its
Director General, Brig. Gen. Sule Kazaure, over the Corps’ failure to
respond to the allegation that the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi
Adeosun, forged an NYSC Exemption Certificate.
The lawsuit was instituted at the Federal High
Court, Lagos marked FHC/L/CS/1369/18. In the lawsuit, SERAP is seeking
an order of mandamus against the NYSC and its DG.
The group is
urging the court to declare that Kazaure and the NYSC’s failure to
provide information and relevant documents on Adeosun’s true status was
unlawful and amounted to a breach of the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act 2011.
The group is praying the court to compel
the NYSC to immediately supply it with “specific documents and
information on Mrs. Kemi Adeosun’s application for the NYSC Certificate
and to publish widely, including on a dedicated and on the NYSC website,
any such information.”
The Punch reports that the suit followed
allegation that Adeosun, who studied abroad, failed to observe the
mandatory one-year national youth service and resorted to forging an
NYSC Exemption Certificate to secure her current job and previous ones
upon returning to Nigeria.
SERAP had last week given the NYSC a
seven-day ultimatum to clear the air on the allegation, which had been
in the public domain for about a month without a word from the minister
herself.
In the suit filed through its lawyer, Ms Bamisope
Adeyanju, SERAP contended that “suspicions of obtaining unauthorised
certificate involving a senior member of the government, if not urgently
and satisfactorily addressed, would weaken public trust in the
government’s oft-expressed commitment to transparency and
accountability.”
