Abuja looting: NYSC deploys soldiers to FCT, State Orientation Camps

Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Rattled by the vandalization of its orientation camps in Taraba and Abuja, the management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has deployed military personnel massively to all the orientation camps across the 36 states and the FCT to avert future occurence ahead of the November resumption date.
The Director-General of the scheme, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, who made the disclosure in a telephone chat with Daily Sun in Abuja, confirmed that its Orientation camp in Abuja was attacked in the early hours of Tuesday, adding that the situation has been brought under control.
Itemizing what the scheme lost to the looters, the DG listed kits, food items and mattresses, warning the public that no palliatives was kept in the Scheme’s orientation camps across the country.
On the invasion of the Kubwa Orientation camp, Brigadier Ibrahim narrated that; “They came last weekend and we opened the stores to show them that there is no palliative in our custody.
“The same thing happened today when some of them came and left after seeing our store empty of any palliative, but another set came and enter straight into the store we usually keep our kits.
“I don’t know if they want to make use of our kits, but the good thing is that if any of them try it, we will arrest and prosecute the person for impersonation. They also invaded the store we usually store food stuffs for orientation of prospective corps members and took small quantity.
“They also took many mattresses, but we have already started recovering them because they are majorly Kubwa residents. Some also took plastic chairs,” he noted.
“Information just went round that they are sharing palliatives and crowd stormed the place. I was surprised to see many married women. I asked one of them, now that you will appear in television for wrong reasons, what will you tell your children at home. She was very remorseful.
“The Army really tried to have arrived the Kubwa camp at a very short notice. The situation is under control and we have deployed soldiers to all our camps nationwide.
The DG equally pleaded with the youths not to invade it’s orientation camps, emphasising: “I am appealing to Nigerians especially the youths that we don’t have palliatives in our orientation camps.”
“We are preparing for orientation next month and what we have in our stores are kits for corps members and other items they will use during the duration of the orientation.
“No government kept any palliative in any of our orientation and the ones that the FCT authority kept, they have already evacuated and shared since July,” he said.
“Let me also appeal again, that we should do everything to support the scheme. I can tell you that many Nigerians are already feeling the impart of the absence of corps members  in many states now that we have only one batch because of COVID-19.
“Some state governors that are already feeling the absence of the corps members can’t wait for us to mobilise new batch. In some places, corps members are school principals, medical heads in many hospitals. The importance of the corps members are enormous,” he appealed.