Insecurity: NYSC Seeks Deployment Of More Troops To Orientation Camps

Following the growing security challenges in the country, the management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has called on the Federal Government to deploy more troops to its orientation camp nationwide in order to protect corps members from bandits, kidnappers and other criminal elements.

Chairman of the NYSC Governing Council, Amb Fatima Abubakar, made the request at the Army Headquarters, in Abuja, on Thursday, when she led other members of the council on a courtesy call on the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru.

Abubakar, while lamenting the rising insecurity in the country, noted that the Army has continued to be an important stakeholder in the NYSC scheme.

According to her, the security provided at NYSC camps by soldiers during the #EndSARS protests, prevented the wanton destruction of properties at the camps by hoodlums.

She said, “The Nigerian Army has continued to be the biggest stakeholders in the NYSC scheme. We are here today to register, first of all, our appreciation; our appreciation for the continued statutory role the army provides in our orientation camps by sending commandants to man our orientation camps.

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“We also appreciate the training the Nigerian Army gives the youths. It shapes them and trains them for the tasks ahead. We are pleading that you beef up troops at the NYSC camps because the camps have become so large these days, not like it was at the beginning.

“In a particular camp, sometimes, you have 1,000 young men and women during orientation and we don’t have enough troops, especially because of the growing security challenges of abductions and kidnappings.”

The chairman stressed the need for collaboration between the NYSC and the Army in the area of capacity and human resources development.

Attahiru in his response commended the NYSC for instilling in the youths the attitude of patriotism and loyal service to their fatherland.

He advised the NYSC management to introduce patriotism and entrepreneurship as subjects in their orientation programmes to enhance national development.