Safety of Corps Members Must Be Guaranteed Before Posting – NYSC DG

Victoria Ojeme

21 June 2011

Abuja — The Director General of National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Brigadier General Maharazu Tsiga, yesterday, declared that the safety and security of corps members must be guaranteed before their posting to areas of primary assignment.

Tsiga, who spoke in Abuja when he formally received five kidnapped corps members, who regained their freedom weekend in Port Harcourt, insisted that the NYSC would henceforth demand guarantees of the safety and security of corps members from states where they were to be posted.

He also revealed that men of the State Security Service, SSS, Nigerian Army and police were involved in rescuing the corps members and other hostages in a jungle where they were held captive, without paying ransom.

The NYSC DG noted that it had become necessary to secure the guarantees of the safety and security of corps members as part of measures to safeguard them from the menace of criminal gangs and intimidation in the course of their national service.

Speaking on the release of the five corps members, Tsiga said: “We went there, we used the security agencies, particularly the SSS, Police and Army to make sure that we rescued these corps members.

“There was nothing that we paid in terms of ransom, they were rescued and we were also able to rescue other kidnapped people in the jungle too; my corps members came out alive, healthy.”

The corps members, including Olumide Yusuf, Funmilayo Fase, Chinonye Ejiogu, Nkechi Nweze and Vivian Okwuanya, were kidnapped on June 7 in Port-Harcourt when coming from where they had gone to inspect a library under construction. The library was part of their community development project.

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