MINISTRY of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, on Monday, dragged the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), its Director General, Oyo State Coordinator and the Attorney General of the Federation to court over his non-observance of the mandatory one-year service.
Shittu, in the suit brought pursuant to certain provisions in the NYSC Act, 1973 and the provisions in the 1979 and 1999 Constitution, presented four issues before the court for determination.
The Minister is asking the court to determine whether by NYSC not issuing him a call-up notice to participate in the scheme, he would have become legally obligated to present himself before he attained age 30 years.
He is also praying the court to decide whether the non-issuance of a call-up notice by the NYSC to enable him to 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.
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The third issue is 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, is also seeking 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.
Among other prayers, Shittu is asking the court to order the NYSC to issue him a discharge or an exemption certificate should the third issue bordering on House membership being equal to national service be resolved in his favour.
In addition, he is seeking a perpetual injunction restraining the NYSC from imposing any liability on or making him suffer any liability, civil or criminal, as a result of his, “purported non-service under the NYSC scheme.”
It will be recalled that the Minister, following a publication by an online newspaper, had stressed that his services as a lawmaker in the Second Republic were tantamount to a national service as contemplated in the NYSC scheme.
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