Kemi Adeosun Must Be Prosecuted For NYSC Certificate Forgery, Centre Insists

The Centre for Social Justice Equity and Transparency has requested that former Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun be arrested and prosecuted for alleged certificate forgery by the Department of State Services and the Inspector General of Police.

The demand was made by the centre’s Executive Director, Kolawole Johnson, in a statement headed “Centre asks for prompt arrest and prosecution of ex-minister, Adeosun.”

This comes only five days after a Federal High Court in Abuja declared that Adeosun was not qualified for the National Youth Duty Corps scheme’s one-year required service as of the time she graduated from university.

In the lawsuit, filed FHC/ABJ/CS/303/2021, the court also found that she did not need to show a certificate from the National Youth Service Corps in order to be considered for a ministerial post.

Following a scandal involving a fake National Youth Service Corps exemption certificate, Adeosun resigned as minister in 2018, blaming her trusted aides for the alleged falsification.

“Having never worked in the NYSC, visited the premises, been privy to nor familiar with their operations, I had no reason to suspect that the certificate was anything but genuine,” she had said.

The centre, on the other hand, contended that the court merely cleared the minister on whether she needed a NYSC certificate to be appointed, not on the alleged falsification.

Part of the statement read, “Before her resignation, she had admitted forging the NYSC certificate that she was using and had no moral ground to continue in public office which led to her resignation. She was subsequently sneaked out of the country to avoid been arrested by security agencies which irked the anger of many Nigerians till date.

“Recently Nigerians had begun to see the hands of the conspirators that sneaked her out of the country to avoid arrest rearing its head again. Kemi Adeosun appeared from the blues and was seen launching a foundation in Nigeria. As if that was not enough, a few days ago Nigerians woke up to the rude shock of a court judgement vindicating her complicity in the forgery and possession of fake NYSC certificate days after her showmanship in Lagos.

“CESJET wishes to draw the attention of Kemi and her handlers to the recent happenings in neighboring South Africa where a former President is currently languishing in prison for contempt of court. Kemi’s status doesn’t in any way equate to the office which Comrade Jacob Zuma once held in that country and could be tried yet our own cannot be made to account for her acts and deeds. This is a shame on all Nigerians.

“The Director-General of the State Security Service and the Inspector General of the Nigerian Police Force should immediately put her into custody to obtain her statement and trial before a court of law.

“The pain of Nigerians occasioned by Kemi Adeosun who was clearly not qualified to manage our economy but yet forged her way into such an enormous position cannot be ignored. This is why the Board of CESJET join other men of good conscience to call for her immediate arrest and persecution for forgery, a crime she has already confessed to in order to appease the conscience of the good people of Nigeria for the pain they have been subjected to by her actions.

“We, therefore, give a grace of 48 hours for Kemi Adeosun to be arrested to face prosecution to avoid a mass action of Nigerians against the judicial system of this country or Mrs Kemi Adeosun should honourably surrender herself to the law enforcement authorities and face prosecution.”