Certificates Racketeering: Over 15,000 students affected by ban – NANS tells FG

• The ban came after an undercover reporter described how he participated in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for the second time and graduated from a Benin Republic institution in less than two months
• Following the revelation, the federal government banned the validation of degree certificates from Benin Republic, Togo

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Benin Republic, has requested the government’s leniency over the ban on the validity of degree certificates from both the country and Togo, saying 15,000 Nigerian students are in Benin who will be negatively affected by it.

The ban came after an undercover reporter described how he participated in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for the second time and graduated from a Benin Republic institution in less than two months.

Following the revelation, the federal government banned the validation of degree certificates from the countries.

However, Ugochukwu Favour, the NANS president in Benin Republic, stated on Thursday, January 4, that the government should take into account pupils who had been admitted legitimately.

“For now, I will say that the Federal Government should look into the issue. Now, you can’t because it is happening in this school, punish everyone because it involved close to 15,000 students in the Benin Republic,” he said on Channels Television’s breakfast show Sunrise Daily.

He said that the government had to work more to look into the situation and bring charges against people connected to the story.

However, he stated that NANS in the Benin Republic has formed a committee to look into the issue, saying that the report of its findings will be essential in putting a stop to such incidents in the future.

He said: “I have really not validated if it has been happening for a long time. This is just like what just came out on social media and we are still trying to find out how long it has been happening,” the NANS president said. “So, that is why I set up a committee as the president to investigate it.”