Ahead of next month’s governorship election in Edo state, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has given conditions the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should meet before corps members are released to serve as ad-hoc staff during the exercise.
The director-general of NYSC, Brigadier General Nnamdi Okore-Affia, said yesterday in Abuja that until the electoral umpire guarantees the security of the corps members it intends using as ad-hoc staff for the gubernatorial election, the corps members would not be released.
‘We are working with INEC to ensure a guaranteed the security of corps members that would function as ad-hoc staff; if not, we would not allow INEC to use corps members.
In the aftermath of the April 2011 general elections, in which corps members served as ad-hoc staff, no fewer than 10 of them lost their lives, while scores were injured in the unrest that engulfed some of the states in northern part of the country.
The DG, also warned that it would be in the interest of the country, if the NYSC Act remains part of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He said that the on-going argument in some quarters for it to be expunged from the constitution is not in the best interest of the country.
‘There are calls for memoranda on the NYSC Act. There is a proposal to either amend or remove it from the constitution. We are canvassing that the NYSC Act remains part of the constitution. If it is removed from the constitution, it would be liable to abuse’, Okore-Affia said.