Adamu Sunday, a 2024 graduate of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, is on the verge of collapse due to depression and hopelessness after being denied participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) due to a JAMB registration number mix-up.
Sunday, who completed his Economics degree in 2024, alleged that the university assigned his Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) registration number to another student, enabling that person to serve in his place. This means that while someone else has been using his registration number to serve and possibly work, Sunday is left with a useless degree and no chance to participate in the mandatory national service.
Speaking to NEWS BULLETIN, a distraught Sunday said, “I am depressed knowing that someone has reaped the labour of my four years. This person used my registration number to serve, and I believe he must have been using that NYSC certificate to work and make a living. Look at me, the owner of the number he/she used. I have graduated, but I cannot serve; what value do my results have? Not going to school is better than what is happening to me. I feel like ending it all.”
Sunday’s ordeal began when he tried to register for NYSC in 2024, but his applications were rejected multiple times. He then discovered the shocking mix-up when his repeated attempts to register for NYSC were thwarted. A visit to the school in July 2024 revealed that he had allegedly served in 2019, which Sunday knew was impossible since he had only resumed studies in 2019 due to an academic strike.
Sunday visited the JAMB Zonal Office in Abuja, where biometric verification confirmed him as the legitimate owner of the registration number in question. He then escalated the issue to his Head of Department, who advised him to write a formal letter to the Dean of Student Affairs. However, weeks passed without any response, prompting Sunday to seek intervention from the Vice-Chancellor’s office.
The VC’s Special Assistant, Gbadamosi, wrote a note and placed it in Sunday’s file, asking him to go back to Student Affairs. However, the Student Affairs officer dismissed the note, saying that even if the VC got involved, they were the ones who would advise him on the matter.
Feeling frustrated, Sunday wrote letters to the JAMB Registrar and NYSC headquarters, both of which acknowledged his complaint. He said, “On September 4, 2024, I wrote a letter to the JAMB Registrar. I went there and they confirmed that I was the original owner of the number. On September 5, I wrote to NYSC headquarters. I went there too, and I was told there was no need for me to submit a letter because they only work with lists from schools.”
However, Sunday insisted that the person mobilized with his number did it illegally and that the NYSC should be interested in the matter as a reputable organization. The letter was later taken from him, and after a week, a lady called him from NYSC, saying she had spoken to the student affairs officer of his school, asking him to go back to his school.
When Sunday went back, the data entry officer of his school, Idris Dahiru, made jest of him, saying that if he wanted, he should report the matter to anywhere in the world, but they would still refer him to them. He insisted that it was either Sunday did JAMB regularisation or nothing.
Sunday alleged that despite JAMB directing the school to investigate the matter, the dean of students of his school was upset that he had escalated the issue to higher authorities.
Sunday appealed to relevant authorities, including JAMB, NYSC, and the Federal Ministry of Education, to intervene and ensure he gets justice. “This injustice must be corrected. I should not be made to suffer for something I knew nothing about,” he pleaded.
Efforts to reach the university’s spokesman, Abraham Ekpo, for comment w, were unsuccessful, with several calls to him unanswered and no response to a message sent to him on the matter as of the time of filing this report.
