THE
National Youth Service Corps on Monday asked potential corps members to
report at their orientation camps location where the fundamentalist
Islamic sect, Boko Haram is waging an insurgency against the Federal
Government. The States are Yobe, Kaduna, Kano, Borno, Gombe and Bauchi.
A statement signed by the Director
(Corps Mobilisation), Mrs Mary Kolajo, and pasted at the NYSC
Headquarters in Abuja, urged whosoever wanted a re-posting to do so
while in camp.
The statement adds that the cases will expeditiously be treated by state coordinators.
The NYSC directive came as anxious corps members posted to the volatile states besieged its national headquarters on Monday.
Dozens of the affected corps members were seen trying to gain entry into the complex which was being guarded by armed soldiers.
The corps members conducted themselves peacefully but were unable to get officials to address their concerns as of the time the News Agency of Nigeria got there.
A graduate of the University of Ibadan who gave his name as Dr. Isiaah, said his posting to Yobe State was unacceptable.
According to him, none of his colleagues
was averse to serving Nigeria as a corps member but that they were not
in a hurry to die “a senseless, needless and avoidable death.”
He said,” I graduated from U.I. I
studied Medicine. I, and most of my colleagues you see here today, am
here to seek alternative posting to other states because of the security
situation in the north.
“Our families made sacrifices to get us
where we are today. I, for one, cannot go to Yobe State if the
President who is the Commander- In-Chief of the Armed Forces does not
feel safe to go there; who am I, an ordinary citizen, to go there?
“The President told the whole nation
during the Presidential Media Chat last week that he could not use a
helicopter to go to Borno or Yobe states because of security concerns,
why do they want to send us there?”
He also argued that since the extremist
Islamic sect, Boko Haram, which is active in these areas don’t want
anything to do with western education “why should Nigeria waste the
lives of those who spent the greater part of their lives to acquire it.”
“Those who get posted to schools will
become potential targets because they say they don’t want schools, why
should we be made the sacrificial lambs? he asked.
Another prospective corps member, Mr.
Chiedu Okoye, a graduate of Agric-Economics from the University of
Maiduguri, said although he was born and bred in the north, he had had
too many close shaves with death to accept his posting to Jos (Plateau
State).
He said, “I have spent a greater part of
my life in the north but I cannot serve anywhere in the north. Just
this January I escaped from Maiduguri with a gunshot wound.
“It was God that saved me from the Jos
crisis in 2001 when I was passing through on my way back from the East.
Must I die prematurely before somebody takes me seriously?”
Albert Francis who also graduated from
University of Ibadan and was posted to Sokoto State said, “I know that
Sokoto is free from the crisis but you can not predict what will happen
later.”
Speaking with NAN, Femi
Adegbite, a fresh gradutated posted to Maiduguri said, “Last year, many
youth corps members were killed in these troubled states including Borno
and nothing happened. How do you expect me to go to Maiduguri?”
In an interview with our correspondent,
the Director of Public Relations of the NYSC, Mrs. Bose Aderibigbe, said
the commission was mindful of the corps members concerns but that
proper procedures would have to be followed for those who wished to be
redeployed.
She said, “Staying at the secretariat
gate will not solve this problem. The 2012 batch “B” corps members who
have collected their call-up letters from their institutions should
immediately proceed to their respective orientation camps for
registration and camping.
“Whoever is interested in seeking
relocation from the present state of deployment should make a request
for relocation while on camp.
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