Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu sues NYSC for Allegedly not Issuing him Call-Up Letter in 1979

Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu sues NYSC for Allegedly not Issuing him Call-Up Letter in 1979

Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu has filed a lawsuit against the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), saying it failed to call him up for the mandatory one year national service in 1979 after his graduation.

This is coming after the minister was disqualified by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from participating in the Oyo governorship primaries because he did not partake in the NYSC program.

Shittu, who went into politics after graduating from Law School, said serving as a state lawmaker was his own national service.

According to Punch, Shittu filed the suit against the NYSC and the Attorney General of the Federation at a Federal High Court in Ibadan, Oyo state through his lawyer Olalekan Ojo (SAN).

The NYSC waived his obligation to serve by not serving him a call-up letter, he said.

He is urging the court to declare that “the possession of the NYSC Discharge or Exemption Certificate is not one of the requirements for the appointment of the plaintiff as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or for his election as a state Governor or as a senator, pursuant to sections 147, 177 and 65 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

He also wants the court to restrain the NYSC and the other defendants (NYSC DG and Oyo state NYSC Coordinator), from calling him up to serve “or from imposing any liability on or making the plaintiff to suffer any liability, be it civil or criminal, on account of his purported non-service under the NYSC scheme.”

The court should also order the the NYSC to issue to him a Certificate of National Service, because he “served the nation as member of the Oyo State House of Assembly immediately after graduating from the Nigerian Law School,” he prayed.

Either the above, or the court orders the NYSC to issue to him an Exemption Certificate as he has served as a lawmaker, he prayed.