As the nation goes to the polls today, the Director-General of
the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Brigadier-General
Johnson Olawumi has said that adequate security has been
put in place for the safety of the corps members who are
working as Adhoc staff for the elections.
Olawumi also declared that over 168,000 corps were
participating in the exercise across the country.
According to him, the number dropped from 240,000 after
participation in the polls was made voluntary.
The DG who spoke in Abuja as part of the activities to mark
his first year in office added that a Distress Call Center has
also been opened at national secretariat of the Scheme.
He said: “I need to make it clear that we signed an MOU
with INEC in 2010 for corps members to take part as ad-hoc
staff in the conduct of elections. Since then, corps members
have been taking part and contributing so much to
improving our elections.
“A dimension that was introduced late last year is that we
are no longer the ones who submit names of corps
members to INEC. INEC opened their portal and asked
interested corps members to register and they registered.
They were not forced. They registered on their own volition.
“That was why from the over 240,000 corps members that
we have only about 168,000 registered which means close
to 80,000 did not register. It should be noted that the corps
members were not forced and what that means is that any
parent who does not want his or her child to take part must
have told the child not to register.
“Yes it is voluntary. They registered on their own. Not only
that, in the course of registration, they supplied information
as to where they are serving and where they want to be
during the election.
“That means, if a corps member is serving in Anambra
State and the parents live in Oyo State, when asked where
he or she would like to participate during the elections, the
corps member could fill Oyo State. So these are things that
have been done as part of security measures.
“We have documented all the contacts of security agencies
in all local government areas in Nigeria. And we made these
contacts available to all corps members in those areas.
Then in the headquarters here, we keep a record of all those
contacts because we have a Distress Call Centre which we
have reinvigorated to cope with whatever challenges that
might arise during the elections.
“Through that Distress Call Centre, once a corps member is
in distress and he or she calls, we immediately identify the
location and we inform the closest security agency within
the location to rescue the corps member. We have also
compiled the addresses of all the Corpers Lodges across
the country which have been made available to security
agencies in all those areas.
“We have also issued out directives that all our Local
Government Inspectors will not take part in the elections.
Their sole duty on that day is the security of corps
members. We have approached INEC and they are going to
provide logistical support in each of the local government
areas for easy monitoring and rescue operation on the day
of the elections.”
Reacting to concerns in some quarters that some corps
members who work as polling agents usually compromise
election standards and connive with desperate politicians or
party agents to rig elections, Olawumi said that they had
been sensitized sufficiently against any electoral fraud,
saying that apart from the punitive measures stipulated in
the constitution, NYSC Scheme also has its internal
mechanism to discipline any erring members.
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