The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has arrested 17 youths for allegedly impersonating corps members at the National Youth Service Corps Orientation Camp at Kubwa, Abuja.
ICPC operatives made the arrests on Thursday evening while suspects were posing and taking pictures outside the camp during the passing-out ceremonies.
It said they stormed the NYSC Orientation Camp at Kubwa based on intelligence reports and effected the arrest of the suspects made up of eight females and nine males.
During preliminary investigation, 15 of the ‘fake’ corps members claimed to have enrolled in degree courses run by consultancy services in the following institutions: University of Calabar (6), University of Jos (6), Ebonyi State University (1), Federal University of Technology, Owerri (1) and Crown Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti (1).
“One of the other two said she never attended any university but desired the NYSC discharge certificate. The other, a young man, impersonated his sister, a genuine corps member currently receiving medical treatment abroad, in order to collect her discharge certificate,” the statement read.
The spokesman of the ICPC, Mr. Folu Olamiti, noted that the commission’s Chairman, Mr. Ekpo Nta, has at various public fora warned parents, guardians and young students seeking admission into universities and other tertiary institutions to ensure that their proposed courses are approved by the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) and other regulatory bodies.
The arrests bring to 26 the total the number of “fake” corps members arrested by ICPC.
The commission had arrested nine others in May.
-ThePunch
