Johnson Olawumi, on Thursday said despite the deadly attacks on corps
members during the 2011 election, they will be deployed for election
duties across the country during the 2015 election.
He said adequate measures had been put in place to protect the lives
of the corp members that would partcipate in the election.
Olawumi, who said this in Ikare-Akoko, Ondo state, at the inauguration
of the Batch 'C' of the 2014 corps members deployed in Ondo state,
said the organization had learnt from the mistakes of 2011 and would
be ready to allow corp members to participate in election duties.
According to him, it is the decision of the Federal Government to
deploy corps members for the exercise, saying the agreement with the
Independent National Electoral Commissin over the issue still stands.
He said, "The decision for corps members to take part in election was
taken by government and for the simple reason that they are well
dispersed all over the nooks and crannies of the country and I want to
state categorically that since corp membrrs have started taken part in
elections in Nigeria, our elections have continued to gain
credibility.
"The agreement between NYSC and INEC is still there and what that
means is that corp members will take part in 2015 elections all over
Nigeria whenever election will be held as long as there will be
election, they will be part of it. However, I must state clearly that
we are not sleeping, we are learning from our past mistakes, we have
studied what happened in the last election and we have put measures in
place for the safety and security of corp members.
"You can all recall what happened in Ekiti and in Osun, two elections
that were adjudged to be very fair and corps members were particularly
singled out and commended for all the roles they played in the
elections, for this coming election they are eager to go but on our
part we have put a lot of measures in place to guarantee their safety
and security."
The Ondo State Coordinator of NYSC, Alhaji Olanrewaju Kuoye, said
2,400 corp members were deployed in the state but 2,395 had registered
as at the commencement of the ceremony.
He said the corps members were in high spirit, urging the state
government to fulfill its promises of assistance over inadequate
hostels and staff quarters in the orientation camp.
The Ondo state governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, congratulated the corp
members for the feat and enjoined them not to allow the riggour and
challenges of the orientation camp to distract them.
The governor, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry
of Youth Development and Sports, Dr. Gbenga Adelayi, said government
would continue to assist the NYSC in the state to make the stay of the
corp members meaningful.
--PUNCH
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