Posted by By JAMES OJO, Abuja. on
New Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, has denied allegations that he dodged the mandatory national youth service.
New Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, has denied allegations that he dodged the mandatory national youth service.
To prove his claim that he indeed participated in the NYSC scheme, the Speaker presented to panelists photograph taken during the service year.
Besides, a platoon member of Bankole at the NYSC orientation camp in Kubwa, Abuja, surfaced on Wednesday to defend the Speaker and support his claim.
Now a manager in one of the branches of a new generation bank in Abuja, Bankole's platoon member stormed the National Assembly with a photograph taken to fault the story carried by a national daily on Wednesday.
The manager, who begged for anonymity, said he was shocked to read that the new Speaker dodged the national service, adding that he had to instruct his wife to search the family album for the photograph and bring it to him so that he could let the world know the truth.
Another person, Benjamin Benedict Ekwoaba, who claimed to be in the same NYSC orientation camp with Bankole, tasked the necessary government organs to verify the claim.
'I am aware that there may be statutory organs of government saddled with the responsibility of verifying this claim, but I want to save us all this distraction. I personally was in the NYSC orientation camp with the Honourable Speaker in February 1998," Ekwoaba said in a statement.
But a member of the House in the camp of former Speaker Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, dismissed Bankole's defence as a shameless lie.
The lawmaker, who preferred to be anonymous for now, challenged the Speaker to produce his NYSC discharge certificate instead of parading a picture taken at an orientation camp.
'A picture can't be the same thing as certificate. It is possible the Speaker went for the orientation but shunned the scheme thereafter and that is why he can't claim to have served because he was not discharged with a certificate," the lawmaker stated.
Bankole, however, said he observed the one year mandatory service in 1998, between February and December, at the West African Aluminum Products Company, a private company in Abuja , after he was rejected by the Human Rights Commission, where he was first posted.
On other allegations that he deserted the British Army, the new Speaker said that he observed the prerequisite military training according to the British standard and that he never attended the Royal Military School, Sandhurst as he had no intention of becoming a professional soldier.
Hon Bankole solicited the cooperation and support of the media in moving the House forward, giving assurance of the readiness of the new leadership to carry every member along.