Babatunji Wusu –
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Director General, Brig.-Gen. Yush’au Ahmed, stated that the Service was making every effort to secure the release of all the Corps members who were abducted in August while traveling to their orientation camp in Sokoto.
The NYSC director also advised Corps members from traveling at night while speaking at an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Youth Development in Abuja on Thursday, September 21.
He revealed that three of the eight potential corps members who were kidnapped in August 2023 while traveling to the orientation camp in the state of Sokoto have been freed.
He claims that the traditional and religious authorities are collaborating with the pertinent security agencies to ensure the release of the final five.
“We are working to see that we free the kids from captivity,” he stated. We are hopeful that we will receive them as soon as possible based on all the signals we are seeing.
He claims that the liberated corps members have been relocated to the FCT and have received the necessary medical care.
In order to avoid repeat incidents, he stated that nighttime travel was against the safety advice given to all corps and potential corps members. He also requested that all safety advice be strictly followed.
“We are requesting help from all parties involved in the NYSC to safeguard the safety of the lives and property of corps members.
Continue to stay on top of things, but know that we will be the first to raise the red flag if something starts to go wrong.
He advised the administrators of the program to proactively develop a rehabilitation program to address any trauma they may have had after being freed.
In order to increase compliance, the congressman said that the travel advice process needed to be strengthened. He advised corps members to “do their combing and raise flags before your camp so that corps members can know how to navigate going forward so that these things do not happen again.”
We will provide you with the legislative support necessary to move this plan ahead, and now is the ideal time to do so because our president has shown that he values young people via his selections.
The committee’s chairman promised that it will review the bill on the NYSC Trust Fund and make the required motions to have it become law.
The committee decided that the NYSC administration should go see the relatives of the deceased and inform them of the efforts that have been undertaken.
