Human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, has revealed that he was denied his Discharge Certificate by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme despite participating and completing the mandatory one-year national service in Adamawa State.
Sowore, who’s the publisher of SaharaReporters, also revealed that he was expelled twice from the University of Lagos (UNILAG) during his undergraduate days before eventually getting a legal reprieve to complete his studies at the same institution.
He made the revelations on Wednesday at a programme to mark the 50th anniversary of the ThePunch Newspapers in Lagos.
He praised the newspaper for its reportage and advocacy about human rights, saying it helped to call attention to some of his plights occasioned by arrests and incarcerations by the government and security agencies.
“I was a student union activist at the University of Lagos, and were it not for Punch Newspaper and Vanguard, I probably wouldn’t have graduated from the university because we couldn’t even get judges to hear our cases when we were expelled.
“And I was expelled twice from the University of Lagos. I spent six years at the University of Lagos instead of the normal four years,” he recalled.
Sowore further recounted observing his one-year national service in Adamawa State, saying: “I finished my NYSC and I was arrested with my NYSC uniform and detained by the military under (General Sani) Abacha, that I was planning to overthrow the government.
“The reason was that in November 1996, I was working as a journalist at the ATV Yola, presenting the NYSC News. Being who I am, I reported that Ken Saro Wiwa was killed.
“It was a pre-recorded programme and my supervisor did not watch it before it was played. Suddenly, everywhere went gaga and they removed me from ATV Yola and I finished my NYSC and I was arrested and detained in a military guardroom at the Air Force Base in Yola.”
He credited his freedom to a news report by a reporter of The Punch Newspaper at the time called Stanley Yakubu, who reported about his detention, saying he would have been forgotten inside the detention facility and would have died there.
“Till today, I was never given my NYSC certificate. I don’t have my NYSC certificate as I speak, but I don’t need it anymore because I have served the country more than any Corps member,” Sowore added.
