Director General of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), Brig-General Johnson Bamidele Olawumi has charged military security agencies, politicians and their supporters towards ensuring that corp members deployed on election duty are adequately protected in order to discharge their duties effectively.
Olawumi gave the charge on Tuesday at the Annual Management Conference of the NYSC in Benin City, the Edo State Capital.
He also called on Nigerians to eschew violence and rally support for Corp members, especially in difficult terrain during the exercise.
“Let me also use this opportunity to call on all politicians, that, as much as possible, we have trained this community of corp members, and we have given them all they require. We have sensitized them, given them manuals that they need to go through, given the implications of any misconduct during elections. On our side, we have prepared them. But let me also plead with politicians, that they should please, plead with their supporters not to offer violence to these corp members. They are just out there to serve their fatherland”.
“Besides, on election day, they should be available for monitoring activities, using the instrumentality of our distress call centres. Such that when there is call or need for us to respond to a corp member who might be in distress, we do that as quickly and as swiftly as possible. If you also observed, you will notice that their are jingles being aired appealing to politicians, community leaders, on the need for the, to talk to their supporters so that they do not offer violence to the NYSC Community’’.
