The great NYSC crime cover-up

The great NYSC crime cover-up
By Peter Nkanga

July 31, 2011 12:34AM


Almost a year after officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) arrested and prosecuted 69 fake National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members rounded up at an illegal NYSC orientation camp in Keffi, Nassarawa State, the suspected organisers of the camp, believed to be high-ranking NYSC officials, are still walking free and are being shielded from investigation and prosecution by the leadership of the service, NEXT investigation has shown.
Highly-placed sources in the NSCDC and the police said while the ‘fake corpers’ who are more or less victims of the corrupt and mercantile tendencies of some NYSC officials, have been disgraced and convicted, the NYSC director-general, Maharazu Tsiga, a serving Brigadier-General in the Nigerian Army, has made it impossible for operatives of the NSDC and the police to bring the suspected masterminds behind the illegal camp to book.
NEXT learnt that the NYSC boss has used his military links to block investigations into the matter and has spurned requests by the police to interrogate some of his staff implicated in the scandal.
The 69 ‘fake corpers’ including a nursing mother, were apprehended on July 26, 2010 when NSCDC operators swooped on their camp in a remote location in Nassarawa State. They were immediately arraigned before a Keffi Upper Area Court, which, in August 2010, sentenced each of them to three years imprisonment, with an option of a N10,000 fine.
The culprits, who acknowledged that they were not eligible to participate in the one-year compulsory national service, however confessed that they each paid between N70,000 and N150,000 to suspected NYSC agents across the country to procure fake NYSC call-up letters to the fake camp, believed by security agents to have been in existence for many years before last year’s raid.
One NSCDC personnel who partook in the raid, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the criminal syndicate behind the camp even had police officers attached to the place in an apparent bid to make it pass for the real thing.

Blocking investigations
Since the raid, NEXT learnt that the Force Criminal Investigation Department in Abuja and the headquarters of the NSCDC have laboured vigorously to get to the root of the matter and uncover those behind the fake camp. Our investigation indicates that Mr Tsiga has effectively frustrated the investigations by failing to release his staff named in the scam to the investigating officers for questioning.
Before running into the brick wall erected against their work by the NYSC boss and his officials, detectives of the two security agencies were able to identify at least four staff at the NYSC head office in Abuja. Those identified are Idris Y. Abubakar, Mwangwi Kingsley, Ahmed Alhassan, and one Abraham, commonly known as AB, as having a case to answer.
The NSCDC operative, who did not want his name mentioned for fear that he might be punished, said his agency passed the report of its investigation to both the leadership of the NYSC and the anti-fraud unit of the police. He said his team had to give up the chase of the suspected NYSC officials after the leadership of the youth service scheme “became very hostile” to investigators, and wouldn’t allow access to suspects.
But while the NSCDC has surrendered, the police have continued the chase, but are becoming increasingly frustrated as well. An officer privy to the investigation said the inquiry was not making any headway either “because of the recalcitrant attitude of the NYSC DG.” Mr Tsiga has shown clearly on at least two occasions that he was not keen on security agents unravelling those behind the crime. In November 2010, the Police wrote to the NYSC boss requesting him to release the four suspects who are members of his staff for interrogation. In the letter (seen our reporter) he was also requested to supply documents and other details needed to help in their investigation. Mr Tsiga did not respond, despite the letter being received and acknowledged in his office.
After a four-month wait for Mr Tsiga’s response, the police again wrote to the NYSC boss in March 2011, reminding him of their request for his cooperation in interrogating the brains behind the criminal syndicate in his organisation. Mr Tsiga still refused to reply or render assistance, thus undermining the police’s effort to unravel the crime.
“We have since realised that he has no respect for the police,” lamented a top police officer in Abuja. “We do not know whether he has anything to hide in this matter. But it is clear he does not want this investigation. Or maybe he is playing for time, believing that with time, the investigation will be swept under the carpet and forgotten.”

Shielding Mr Tsiga
Numerous attempts to reach Mr Tsiga for his comments were rebuffed by NYSC officials. At one time in late June, he was said to be attending a conference in Kaduna State. Upon his return the following week, the NYSC spokesperson, Mercy Kolajo, was again contacted. She however declined comment, saying “It is only the DG who can speak officially on this issue. I cannot say anything unless he gives clearance.” Instead of making efforts to put our reporter in touch with Mr Tsiga, she merely referred him to Mr Tsiga’s protocol officer, identified as Mr Yusuf, who was to facilitate audience with the army general, but he refused after being briefed of the matter.
“This is a sensitive issue which I don’t think I am in a position to handle. NYSC has a Public Relations Unit, which handles such matters. This kind of issue should not have been brought to me,” Mr Yusuf said. “They are the ones who should facilitate your seeing the DG. They should know better. I’ll have to refer you back there.” With the way our reporter was tossed around by officials for several weeks, it appears the NYSC head office, located in the Maitama district of Abuja, is being run in a military commando style, where no one is willing to present any perceived ‘bad news’ before the General. However, after a recent visit to the place, Hillary Nasamu, an administration official attached to Mr Tsiga, denied that any staff of the NYSC was involved in any criminal act.
“Why would an NYSC officer be involved? Even by the imagination of the most naive person, what would an NYSC person benefit from a fake camp?” Mr Nasamu said.
He also denied knowledge of any letter written to his boss by the police on the matter. “No, No, No, there is none,” Mr Nasamu said. “At least I should know because I work with the DG. Such information would have come in. There is nothing like that. That I know very well.” But our investigation was able to establish that the police letters were indeed delivered and properly acknowledged at Mr Tsiga’s office.
The police also appear reluctant to speak on the record in this matter. When our reporter first contacted him, the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Yemi Ajayi, requested that the enquiry be e-mailed directly to him. But on receiving the questions, he said he was not competent to speak on the matter. He directed all enquiries to the Force Public Relations Officer, Sola Amore, who could not be reached as at the time the paper was to go to press.

An organised crime
The police and NSCDC operatives who spoke to us said organising fake NYSC camps had for long been a lucrative side-business for some staff of the scheme.
The suspects operated the parallel orientation camp in Nasarawa State where they provide complete NYSC kits to about 300 fake youth corps members assembled from all over Nigeria. These would also be given letters to fraudulently serve in organisations and subsequently obtain NYSC discharge certificates.
“As an organised crime, the whole exercise is a syndicate thing made up of a cartel all over the country with agents both in the tertiary institutions, NYSC Office and so on,” NSCDC national spokesperson, Emmanuel Okeh, said when the news of the Nasarawa fake camp first broke last year.