Ridwan Kolawole, Ibadan.
The minister of communication, Adebayo Shittu, has alleged that Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state does not have a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.
Shittu made the allegation during an interview on Channels TV on Sunday, September 30. The minister accused the Oyo state governor of being against his governorship ambition for fear of being jailed.
“Certainly he did, using the NYSC as the last card. I have it on good authority that even he doesn’t have an NYSC certificate and yet he too wants to go to the Senate. “I hope that at the appropriate time, that issue will also be brought to the fore,” Shittu said.
The minister’s comments was in reaction to him being screened out of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary for Oyo state, following a report that he did not participate in the mandatory NYSC despite graduating from the university at the age of 25.
He said he believed that having been elected a lawmaker right after his university education, that he had served as his national service.
Similarly, Osun Daily reports that Shittu said he received the news of his disqualification with shock, adding that APC was wrongly advised to disqualify him.
“On the issue of NYSC, I had made my position known and there’s no need to repeat myself but I wish to further add that the position of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) is unambiguous on the qualification for participating in governorship election.
“I want to believe that the NWC was wrongly advised to disqualify me. I do not want to agree that a script is being acted, if at all, it is poorly written,” he said.
Shittu said he had forwarded an appeal for the NWC to review and reconsider the decision not to clear him as a governorship aspirant of the party.
Meanwhile, the deputy governor of Sokoto state, Alhaji Ahmad Aliyu, has emerged as the flag-bearer of All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2019 governorship election.
Announcing the result on Monday, October 1, in Sokoto, the chairman, APC Gubernatorial Primary Election in the state, Alhaji Sulaiman Abubakar, said the election was contested by four aspirants.
