Members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) yesterday stormed the NYSC headquarters, protesting their posting to some troubled states in the north, as they demanded redeployment.
Numbering about 100, the corps members blocked the gate of the headquarters building and hindered, in the process, vehicular movement in and out of the premises, even as they vowed not to resume at the states of deployment except they were redeployed.
LEADERSHIP had earlier reported that the posting of corps members to the crisis-prone parts of the country was generating resistance on the part of the corps members and that it might witness boycott as parents had vowed not to release their wards to serve in those states with security challenges.
Some of the corps members who spoke with LEADERSHIP, lamented their posting to the north, and expressed their readiness to forego the national service for fear of insecurity, while others said that they came to return their call up letters demanding that they be exempted from service if the scheme would not redeploy them.
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"I was a victim of this crisis January 2011. I graduated from University of Maiduguri, where I narrowly escaped death. I was shot and was hospitalised, and that was why I missed the service year when my mates served. Now they want me to serve in Plateau State where there is bombing and killing every day, I can't risk my life the second time. I may not be so lucky this time round, so they should redeploy me, because I will not go there for any reason," one of them lamented.
Mr Femi Adegbite, a youth corps member posted to Maiduguri, said he might not go as he was unsure of his safety.
"I don't want to serve again, they should collect their call-up letter and give me exemption letter and let me go home.I cannot go to Adamawa to serve," shouted, another corps member.
Another said: "I am doing my orientation course here at the headquarters, whether they like it or not, they can lock me up, once it's three weeks they should release me to go, that is better for me than going to the north.
Ireti Labati, posted to Yobe, said she would not go if her posting was not changed, while Albert Francis who graduated from University of Ibadan and posted to Sokoto State said, "I know that Sokoto is free from the crisis but you cannot predict what will happen later, there could be spill over."
Speaking with LEADERSHIP, Director, Corps Mobilisation, Mrs Mary Folusho Kolajo, pleaded with the protesting corps members to go to where they had been deployed to and fill the form for redeployment and said that the scheme could not redeploy any corps member from the headquarters, as they must first resume at the camp for registration and there after apply for redeployment as State coordinators had been instructed to treat deployment cases with priority.
"We cannot be doing relocation here. What we do at the National Headquarters is redeployment. We have told them to resume at their respective camps and then apply for redeployment giving legitimate reasons while they should be redeployed. We have given all the state coordinators the redeployment forms and they have been instructed to treat redeployment cases with utmost priority. We are mindful of the security situation and preparations have been made to secure them," she assured.
In a notice signed by the same director, she asked those interested in seeking relocation from their present states of deployment to make request for relocation on camp. "Please, rest be assured that all requests will be expeditiously treated by state coordinator," she said.
Another NYSC official, Mrs Bose Aderibegbe, urged the affected youth corps members to resume, report in camp first, and added that state governors of the affected states had been mandated by the President to ensure the security of all corps members in their states.
Meanwhile, Gombe State government has beefed up security at the NYSC camp in Gombe, as some of the more than 2,050 Batch 'B' corps members began to reporting to camp.
The Gombe State coordinator, Mr Manesah Igyuse, disclosed this yesterday in an interview in Mallamsidi, headquarters of the Kwami Local Government Area.
He said the state government was doing everything possible to ensure that those posted to the state for the orientation exercise were secured.
"The military have been moved into the camp with their armoured tanks and are combat ready, so nobody will even attempt to come and attack it. More soldiers and policemen have also been drafted to boost security in the camp," he said.