Security-Nigeria - Following the killing of several youth corps members in the post-presidential election riots last week, the Federal Government is rethinking the scheme "to offer greater protection to young Nigerians on national service", THISDAY has learnt. The details were sketchy Monday night, but government sources said President Goodluck Jonathan was "extremely worried and saddened" by the tragic targeting of youth corps members who are also being used as polling officers in the general election. The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was created by Decree No. 24 of May 22, 1973 as part of a post-Civil War plan to "reconstruct, reconcile and rebuild the country" after the bitter internecine war which claimed millions of lives.

It was designed by the then military government of Gen. Yakubu Gowon to foster national integration through the posting of young graduates to places outside their home states.

But they have become targets of attacks in ethnic and religious riots in the country for reasons that are yet unknown.

There have been calls for the outright scrapping of the scheme as many parents are no longer comfortable allowing their wards to be posted to certain parts of the country.

THISDAY learnt that an outright scrapping of the scheme is not being contemplated by the government but there are "serious considerations" on the restructuring to achieve a similar goal of national integration without endangering the lives of the young graduates.

Full military training, as it applies in some Western countries, has been suggested in some quarters, but there is indication yet if the government is thinking along that line.

Meanwhile, in a development considered worrisome, youth corps members of Southern extraction posted to the North are being evacuated by their respective state governments.

The states that have evacuated their citizens include Lagos, Ekiti, Ondo, Rivers, Abia, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, and Osun, among others.

Kwara, one of the states in the North-central, has also ordered the return of their citizens doing the mandatory one year national service in the far North.

This followed the killing of some of the corps members by rioters in the violence that broke out in Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Kano, Katsina and Kaduna States, among others, after the declaration of President Jonathan as winner of the April 16 presidential election.

The action of the state governments may have some far-reaching impact on today's governorship/state Assembly elections taking place across the country.

The corps members were employed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as ad hoc staff to superintend over the on-going elections. They had functioned as polling officers in the previous two elections held on April 9 and April 16 before the violence that greeted the presidential election.

LAGOS

Receiving the state's corps members in Lagos Monday, General Manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, and Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Hakeem Bello, explained that Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) had to order the immediate evacuation of all corps members who are Lagos indigenes and whose parents and guardians reside in the state due to the tense political climate in most of the Northern states and as a result of several distress calls from the affected corps members.

The general manager also said 270 corps members arrived the state Monday around 1pm, saying the state government "is making frantic effort to evacuate those in such states as Jigawa, Gombe and Bauchi".

"As I am speaking, we have evacuated 270 NYSC members. We are not even talking about Lagos indigenes alone. We evacuated those people who their parents are in Lagos. The evacuation was successful; they came in batches. Twelve came in 5:30pm on Arik Airline. Others came in 6:30pm on Arik Airline," he said.

A corps member, Mr. Jimoh Nonayon, who gave an account of how they were rescued on behalf of his colleagues, said different groups of young men, popularly called Almajiri, invaded the streets of Kano State, shouting Sai Baba, Sai Baba, Sai Baba and singing all manners of war songs in Hausa, which he said, he did not understand.

He said the prime targets of the Almajiri were non-indigenes, corps members and other parties that "are not really in support of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)," a situation which he said, culminated in the burning of buildings and cars, citing a case of a car that was burnt with the owner, the husband, the wife and three children inside.

Nonayon added that a lot of corps members "had to run for their lives. But Almajiri pursued some of them. Some were stabbed. Presently in Kano, we have not really recorded any loss of any corps member. But in neighbouring states like Bauchi, Kaduna and Katsina as at last Tuesday, we had recorded the death of about 20 corps members".

A short while after, Nonayon said, a huge number of angry young rioters invaded Corpers' Lodge located opposite the secretariat of Dawa Local Government curiously looking for corps members and threatening to kill, but some police officers and educated Northerners around the secretariat prevented the rioters from continuing with the search for the corps members.

He explained that the police officers "gathered all the corps members and brought us to a room and locked us inside. The Almajiri must not know that we were inside that room. If they knew, they could burn all of us inside. Before we knew it, they moved down to the secretariat that was not far away from my lodge and the guys set fire on it immediately".

"At that point, we asked what was happening. They now said there was riot because of the 2011 presidential elections which President Goodluck Jonathan won and that the target of the rioters was the NYSC members because they were the ones that rigged the elections on behalf of the president. So in the lodge, we gathered all the corps members.

"From Corpers' Lodge, the Almajiri went directly to the INEC lodge, breaking down everything and wanted to set fire on that lodge, but people around pleaded because most of the houses were jointly linked and if they set fire on the lodge, automatically other building would get burnt. In the INEC office, there is a corps members' lodge behind the office.

"The same gate links the INEC office and our lodge. The Almajiri marched and wanted to enter the lodge. They wanted corps members, threatening to kill us. The police men there prevented them from entering. So they retreated to reinforce. So they left the lodge and went back to the secretariat. They started burning houses and cars.

"Before they returned, the police officers and some of the indigenes took us to another room. We were asked to hide under the bed so that they must not know that we are somewhere inside the room. When the Almajiri came back reinforced and marched to the INEC office and scattered the entire lodge, they could not get any corps member.

"In my own lodge, we were there till around 3 p.m. before the mobile police came around and conveyed us to the Dala Police headquarters. But we told them that we still have other corps members in different lodges. We sent some delegates to follow the police officers. So, they took all of us in that local government to Dala Police headquarters," he said.

Similarly, about 200 indigenes of Ondo State deployed in Bauchi State for the NYSC scheme have been evacuated from their state of deployment.

The corps members, who arrived Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Sunday were received Monday by Governor Olusegun Mimiko with a charge to them not to allow the incident to douse their sense of patriotism and remain committed to fostering national unity and development'

The governor said: "We thank God and I congratulate you on being able to get home safely. I also thank God that you were not victims, I have to also encourage you not to, in any way, allow this to dampen your sense of patriotism in this great nation."

In the same vein, more than 83 corps members from Akwa Ibom State serving in different locations in Bauchi State were airlifted home in a chartered aircraft on Saturday through the Gombe Airport at the expense of the state government.

Governor Godswill Akpabio, who disclosed at the weekend during a press conference at the Government House, said the corps members had stayed for days at an undisclosed army barracks in Bauchi following last week's post-election violence.

Rising to the challenge of the post-election violence, the Rivers State government has started the evacuation of its indigenes serving as corps members in the North.

THISDAY gathered that the state government had pulled out an undisclosed number of corps members serving in Bauchi State. An official of the state government said Governor Rotimi Amaechi ordered that the corps members, who had gone into hiding in various parts of Bauchi, the state capital, should be fetched and returned to the state.

In Umuahia, the Abia State Governor, Chief Theodore Orji, Monday warned those with penchant for violence to desist from wasting innocent lives, saying it had become a tradition for rioters in the North to be "using our people as sacrificial lambs" by descending on innocent Igbos at the slightest provocation.

He poured out his grief while addressing over 100 Abia indigenes, who fled home from various parts of the North where they were serving their fatherland in the compulsory NYSC, only to be caught up in the post-election violence.

"The earlier the Northern leaders controlled their youths the better," Orji said, adding that there was no reprisal in Abia and other states of the South-east because "we were able to control the situation" hence politicians, traditional rulers and religious leaders in the North should call their youths to order and openly speak against the evil before it consumed the nation.

OSUN

The Osun State government has also received 70 out of about 200 corps members who are indigenes of the state in crisis-ridden northern states evacuated at the weekend.

The returnee corps members were received at the premises of the state House of Assembly by the Speaker, Hon. Adejare Bello, who lamented the appalling conditions under which the corps members lived before they were evacuated.

Ogun State government has received 400 corps members serving in Bauchi after their evacuation from the crisis-ridden state.

The corps members, who arrived Abeokuta yesterday, lamented their experience during the violent clashes but were particularly angry with the state government for evacuating them rather late.

Addressing newsmen Monday, Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Adeleke Adedoyin, said: "I have seen the situation and I must tell you that this will be my third time of going to the North to rescue to my people. If I have my way, I will say honestly, there must be a re-think on the NYSC programme.

Following the unrest in some states in the North, the Ekiti State government has evacuated about 200 youth corps members of the state origin serving in various Northern parts of the country.

According to the wife of the state governor, Erule Bisi Fayemi, whose office was responsible for the exercise, the evacuation of the corps members commenced last Thursday.

Kwara State Government has also ordered the immediate evacuation of the state indigenes undergoing their NYSC in Bauchi State.

THISDAY checks revealed that the evacuation of the corps members ahead of today's governorship election is to prevent any more attack that may likely ensue after the election.

It was also gathered that the development was borne out of the fact that some of the parents and guardians of some corps members serving in some of the volatile states in the North have been mounting pressures on the state government to assist their wards before the governorship poll today.

However, a statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Saka Isau (SAN), said the state government had ordered the evacuation of the corps members serving in Bauchi State and other parts of the North.

The state government has also received 312 indigenes of the state, including youth corps members. THISDAY gathered Monday that the government was expecting another batch of her citizens that would be evacuated from the North as a result of the violence.

As the Southern state governments were carrying on with their plan to return their citizens from flash points in the North, Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang Monday, directed the police and other security personnel to arrange escorts for corps members involved in the voting exercise to and fro their places of assignment in today's elections.

This, he said, was part of the measures government had taken to ensure their security and safety.

Jang in a press statement signed by his Director of Press, James Mannok, warned any individual or group that plans to either disrupt the peace of the state or interfere with the electoral process that the full weight of the law would be brought to bear on them.

"Security agents have been briefed and adequately empowered within the ambits of the law and rules of engagement to deal with trouble makers before, during and after the elections," the statement added."

The Oyo State government Monday pleaded with serving youth corps members in the state to stay at their duty posts during Tuesday's gubernatorial poll, assuring them of adequate safety in the state.

The corps members had threatened to shun the gubernatorial polls today following the post-presidential poll uprising in some Northern parts of the country where some of their colleagues were killed.

A statement by his media chief, Dotun Oyelade, quoted the governor as saying that special arrangements had been made to further secure them from any danger in spite of the fact that no ugly incident was reported against them in past elections.

This Day/26/04/2011