Apparently miffed on the recurrent Jos crisis, the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC), Brigadier General MI Tsiga has called on the state government to ensure the safety and protection of all corps members in the state.
The DG, who gave this charge through the Director of Publicity, Mr. E.O. Aiyedogbon, in a chat with LEADERSHIP yesterday, said that the agency is concerned about the security of the corps members in Jos metropolis and has been working with the Military, Police, SSS and the Civil Defence Corps to ensure that the corps members are secured.
The crisis which erupted as the agency started the registration of the 2010 Batch 'A', has attracted the attention of the public to the danger it could pose to the newly posted corps members to the state, many of whom probably may not have been acquitted with the metropolis.Mr. Aiyedogbon said: "The Director General has contacted the commanding Officer in charge of Jos, the director of the State Security Service (SSS), the Police and the Civil Defence Corps, to deploy more staff to the camp and the Corpers' lodge, within and outside, to secure it by all means necessary.
Even now, the Civil Defence have started patrolling the whole camp and environs.""The NYSC is also consulting with the state government including the DPOs in Jos metropolis to keep their men at alert, while the traditional rulers are also being spoken to.
The DG is looking critically into the safety of the corpers before the closing of the camp. We are also concerned of the security of those on ground already and we are taking every measure to make sure they are secured."The director said the agency only deployed 1,200 corps members to the state instead of 2,400 usually sent to each state. This is a measure to reduce the number of the Corp members posted to Jos metropolis.
He said: “The management has been helping the corpers who want to relocate to wherever they want and have also increased the registration days for those in that axis to seven days instead of the usual two days given to ensure that those that are skeptical have enough time to get to the camp and register." He also advised the corps members to be security conscious and always put on their uniform whenever they are traveling for identification and protection.