The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig. Gen. Johnson Olawunmi has stated categorically that no corps member will be lost to post-election violence, unlike the 2011 election when a number of corpers were killed in the Northern parts of the country.
Olawunmi stated tha above while addressing newsmen in Abuja at the opening of the 9th edition of the War Against Poverty, a training programme of the Federal Government for corps members which is so far training about 400 corps members.
He said: “I am sure, Insha Allah, that at the end of the 2015 elections, we will not lose a single corps member.
“You all know it that corps members have become part of the electoral process in Nigeria and one thing that is certain is that since corps members have started taking part in elections in Nigeria, you will all accept and agree with me that our elections have continued to get credibility more than it used to be before we started participating.
“On what we are doing as far as their safety and security are concerned, we have put a lot of measures in place. Some will be done before the election, some on election day and some immediately after the election. This principally involves training, sensitisation, collaborating with all the relevant agencies in terms of security for corps members on the day of the election.
“We have even gone beyond that. We are already discussing with community leaders, engaging them and letting them realise that these are their children who are just serving the country and are not INEC members of staff; they are just serving their country.”
“We are also letting them understand that that as they have corps members in their own communities, their own children are also in other communities doing that. So, I’m sure at the end of the 2015 elections, we will not lose a single corps member.”
