To ensure the safety of corps members during the 2019 elections, the Director-General, National Youth Service Corps, Brig.-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure said that corps members would not perform ad-hoc duties in volatile regions.
Kazaure gave the assurance during a working visit to the NYSC 2018 Batch ‘C’ Stream 1 Orientation Camp in Sagamu, Ogun State on Tuesday.
The director-general told newsmen that it was imperative to protect the lives of corps members “who become easy targets for insurgents and disgruntled persons’’.
The NYSC boss said the scheme was already working in tandem with various security agencies to ensure peace during the general elections.
He advised corps members to curtail illegal movements outside their areas of primary assignments, saying accidents accounted for most cases of deaths involving corps members.
Kazaure said the scheme was always evolving strategies to ensure adequate security for its members and urged corps members to also be cooperative to ensure efficiency of interventions.
The DG said, “I have told them that they must always be security conscious and mindful of happenings in their environments.
“Your safety starts firstly by respecting the traditions of your host communities and being at peace with the people for which you’ve been called to serve.
“Then you must always look out for one another and try to always move in groups. Unnecessary travelling should also be curtailed as this is not ideal of the NYSC scheme.
“At the elections, they must refrain from being partisan. As ad-hoc INEC staff, they must be neutral always and shun material or financial inducements from politicians for their own good and safety.
“I want to also state it here that no corps member will be used as ad-hoc staff in the volatile regions during the elections as their safety is of paramount concern to the scheme.”
Kazaure, who had earlier given cash rewards to the various performing groups of corps members who welcomed him, said he was most impressed by the attitude of the corps members.
(NAN)
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