Alleged Forgery: Schoolmate Defends Ondo Ministerial Nominee

Convener/National Coordinator of a socio-political organisation, Social Rehabilitation Gruppe (SRG), Dr. Marindoti Oludare, has come in strong defence of  the Ondo State ministerial nominee, Mr. Olubunmi  Tunde -Ojo, over allegation of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.

Oludare, a United States (US)-based medical doctor and old schoolmate of the ministerial nominee, said while he personally opposed the concept of the NYSC, he has evidence to prove that Ojo  duly enlisted in the youth service scheme and was issued a valid certificate.

The SRG boss, in a letter addressed to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, enjoined the lawmakers to dismiss the petitioners as “meddlesome interlopers and insipid Rabble rousers.”

He  condemned  the petitioners tagged ‘Concerned Ondo Patriots’, stating, “I have watched with great concern/interest, the attempt by some group-’The concerned Ondo Parrots’, to derail the nomination of Bunmi Tunji-Ojo as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This group tried to raise a dud issue over his NYSC certificate which he duly has.

Oludare added, “While I am an avowed opponent of the NYSC, and I have sent a letter of an intention to sue to the federal government, first, I have to point out the intellectual deficiencies in the argument of these meddlesome interlopers and insipid Rabble rousers.

“The NYSC Act never places an age limit on when anyone can be deployed to serve. Olubunmi Tunji- Ojo graduated from a university outside Nigeria; hence, an NYSC call-up letter was not automatically served upon him.”

The medic cum socio-political activist stressed that Section 13 of the NYSC Act prescribes a punishment of imprisonment only for those “who fail to report for service in the Corps the manner directed by the Directorate“.

According to him, “BTO presented himself for NYSC, having not been called upon and his certificate was duly given, not forged.”

In the letter to the Senate,  Oludare said: “While these agents tried to assassinate his character, I feel compelled to speak about his character as 16-year old boy when he was the senior prefect in Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) Staff Secondary School.”

“Tunji-Ojo on several occasions protected the junior students from being bullied and abused and I (a JSS1 student of the same school) was a repeated beneficiary of his protection.

“This act of little Tunji-Ojo  speaks of the manner of man he is; his kind heartedness, integrity and sense of responsibility to defend the vulnerable population around him, even as a teenager when his caprices would have been forgiven, speak volume. 

“When Tunji-Ojo  gets confirmed as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, these and many more are some of the qualities that Nigerians will benefit from this man of noble mien.

“I have neither seen nor spoken to him since he graduated secondary 24 years ago; however, the care and concern he volunteered to my vulnerable nine-year-old self left an indelible mark on me, which is why I feel the need to defend him against this tasteless campaign of calumny,” Oludare stated.