Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, who was screened out of the APC governorship primaries in Oyo state last month for not having the mandatory NYSC certificate, has sued the National Youth Service Commission, NYSC, claiming he was never invited for service after he graduated from the Obafemi Awolowo University OAU in 1978.

Adebayo Shittu who filed the suit marked FHC/IB/CS/111/2018 before the Federal High Court in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, through his lawyer, Mr Olalekan Ojo (SAN), asked the court to declare that NYSC had waived his obligation to observe the one-year compulsory service by allegedly failing to serve him with a call-up letter in 1979 after he finished from the Nigerian Law School.

Also in the lawsuit which has the Director General of the NYSC, the Oyo State Coordinator, NYSC; the NYSC and the Attorney General of the Federation as defendants, the Minister of Communications urged the court to order NYSC to issue to him a Certificate of National Service since he “having served the nation as member of the Oyo State House of Assembly immediately after graduating from the Nigerian Law School or alternatively, asked the court to order the NYSC to issue to him an Exemption Certificate since he had served as a lawmaker in Oyo State.

While no date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit, Adebayo Shittu who read Law at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, and graduated in 1978, is relying on Section 2(1) of the National Youth Service Corps Act, 1973 and also blaming his failure to serve on NYSC.