By Jeremiah Aminu
Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, has urged that corps members be allowed to serve in their respective states of origin and residence due to the rising rate of kidnappings across the country.
In a statement issued by the organisation’s publicity secretary, Jare Ajayi, he recommended that National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members should be allowed to undertake their one-year programme in their states rather than journeying to distant locations for their service.
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“Youth corpers deserve special treatment because of their peculiar nature. For this reason, if the scheme could not be suspended, a modification should be made so that participants are mobilised to serve in their respective states or states of residence rather than being posted to states far from the areas they are familiar with”, he said.
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The motivation behind Ajayi’s recommendation is connected to the recent incidents of kidnapping cases involving NYSC corps members who were abducted on their way to their camps. In his statement, he cited the cases of Sodiq Ogunlana, a LASU graduate; Lateefah, a Kwara Polytechnic graduate; and Gift Samiya who were abducted while travelling to their assigned orientation camps.
“Among the victims cited were Sodiq Ogunlana, a LASU graduate who was shot and abducted on his way to Orientation Camp in Ede, Osun State; Lateefah, a graduate of Kwara Polytechnic who was abducted on her way to the NYSC camp in Taraba State; and Gift David Samiya, who was abducted on the Akwanga-Jos road while going to the camp”, he remarked.
Ajayi added that, “Afenifere first made this call as far back as 2021 when some youth corps members were attacked by bandits. Recent happenings impel us to reiterate our earlier call in this respect. No Nigerian or anybody else deserves to be kidnapped or killed extra-judicially”.
As rife insecurity continues to ravage the country, Afenifere emphasised that safeguarding the lives of corps members should be a top priority in order to ensure that national service does not come at the cost of personal safety.
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