NYSC Director General Visit Family of Slain Corper

         

Brig General Johnson Olawumi,The DG of NYSC paid a condolence to the family of the member of the NYSC killed during Rivers Re-run election.During the visit to Late  Chukwudumabi Okonta’s family in Illah, Ohimili North local government area of Delta.he told newsmen that this single incident should not stop corpers from getting involved in election instead should strengthen ties with INEC, so security forces should work to protect their lives.

“What needs to be done is to block all loopholes, strengthen ties with INEC, intensify collaboration with security agencies and take advantage of technology to drive what we do to guarantee security.

“At any point in time, Nigerians must take part in the election duties, so our concern should be to protect the lives of every Nigerian, irrespective of whether or not he or she is a Corps member,” he declared.

“When this incident happened, I have heard a lot of people saying that may be we should not commit Corps members into electoral duties

“But let me give you a little background, in 2011 we lost some Corps members.

“I came in January 2014 and in that year we had elections in Anambra, Edo, Ekiti and later we had in Osun and in each of this elections, we committed over 6,000 Corps members.

“In the general elections of 2015, we committed about 134,000 Corps members, even early this year, we had elections in Bayelsa, where we committed 2,600 Corps members.

“And in Rivers State election that led to the unfortunate death of this my Corps member, we committed about 6,800 Corps members and in all this, we are unfortunate to have this case of Dumebi,”

He said that the death of one Corps member participating in the electoral duties was not sufficient to stop Corps members from taking part in an election process.

On the contrary, the director-general said allowing the corps members to participate in an election process was to give them opportunity to understand what elections were in the country.

He said that the financial support given to them by INEC meant a lot to most Corps members, particularly those from not too comfortable background.

“If Corps members do not take part in the elections, it is also Nigerians that will fill the gap, so if anything happens to them it is not because they are not Corps members.

“In Abuja election was postponed because we could not muster enough Corps members but what we usually say is that if you are not convinced, don’t take part.

“They needed about 9,000 ad hoc staff, but the Corps members that registered that wants to take part were just about 3,000.

“Now, FCT has gone to the University of Abuja to get students to fill that gap, those students, are they not Nigerians?’’, Olawumi asked.

 However, he urged Nigerians to protect Corps members serving in their respective communities because they are on national assignment and that they needed to be supported and protected.