{"id":72763,"date":"2025-08-11T10:04:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T10:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=72763"},"modified":"2025-08-11T10:04:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T10:04:19","slug":"sowore-announces-abuja-lagos-protests-over-withheld-nysc-certificate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/08\/11\/sowore-announces-abuja-lagos-protests-over-withheld-nysc-certificate\/","title":{"rendered":"Sowore Announces Abuja, Lagos Protests Over Withheld NYSC Certificate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Huldah Shado<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Activist Omoyele Sowore has announced plans for protests in Abuja and Lagos to demand the release of corps member Rita Raye\u2019s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), discharge certificate, which the agency has withheld after extending her service year by two months.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sowore and other activists allege the extension is retaliation for Rita\u2019s public criticism of President Bola Tinubu\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during an X Space titled #TalkWithSowore: Unpacking The Recent Events, he said a meeting in Abuja on Sunday resolved to begin demonstrations this week if the NYSC fails to reverse its decision.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re just coming from a meeting in Abuja where people are already telling us to storm the NYSC secretariat tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will also mobilise for the Lagos protest\u2026 If nothing changes, either Monday, Tuesday, or within the week, we will act,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sowore praised Rita\u2019s courage, claiming her activism partly influenced the recent increase in corps members\u2019 allowance to \u20a677,000.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN), has also called on the NYSC to immediately release her certificate, describing the action as \u201cillegal retaliation\u201d for her criticism of government policy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a Sunday statement, Falana said no court order justified the seizure, comparing it to the 1988 confiscation of the late Bamidele Aturu\u2019s certificate during military rule.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rita, who went viral in March for a video highlighting the economic crisis and alleging threats from NYSC officials, has faced multiple disciplinary summons before being informed of the service extension.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The planned protests, Sowore said, will culminate in a mass mobilisation at the NYSC Passing-Out Parade if Rita is not cleared to conclude her service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Huldah Shado &nbsp; Activist Omoyele Sowore has announced plans for protests in Abuja and Lagos to demand the release of corps member Rita Raye\u2019s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), discharge certificate, which the agency has withheld after extending her service year by two months. &nbsp; Sowore and other activists allege the extension is retaliation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":72764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72765,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72763\/revisions\/72765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}