Attacks on youth corps members worry NYSC boss

The NYSC Director General, Maharazu Tsiga addressing corp members during his visit to the orientation camp at Iseyin in Oyo state.

The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Maharazu Tsiga, has expressed worry over the attack on youth corps members who served as ad hoc staff to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in some Northern parts of Nigeria after the presidential election.

Mr Tsiga, who spoke to journalists at the weekend in Abuja during the wedding ceremony of his daughter, Lubabatu, said the NYSC has begun a head-count of all corps members in the affected areas in order to ascertain the number of victims in the crisis.

"I am celebrating my daughter today with mixed feelings because I have my youth corps members in all parts of this country who were involved in the post-election crisis and some of them may have lost their lives, though we are yet to confirm the numbers which shall be made public immediately we finish the head-count of our members," he said.

The NYSC boss said it was disheartening that despite all the commendations given to the corps members' participation in the exercise nationally and internationally, the rioters decided to attack the innocent youth.

Ondo evacuates indigenes

The Ondo State government at the weekend embarked on the evacuation of about four hundred of its indigenes that were stranded in the north following the violence that erupted in some states.

Out of the evacuees, 276 of were corps members serving the country under the National Youth Service Corps.

The first set of evacuees arrived Akure, the state capital yesterday and were subsequently transferred to their respective local governments and hometowns.

The Permanent Secretary in charge of emergency management, Kehinde Temikotan, said the state government could not close its eyes and allow indigenes of the state to be killed over political issues.

"Indigenes of the state residing in Kano, Katsina Kaduna and Borno states have been directed to converge on Bauchi for easy evacuation," he said.

According to him, some of those evacuated would be dropped at Abuja where some of them have their relatives, while others would be brought to Akure, the state capital.

Source:
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5693070-147/story.csp