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Fred Itua, Abuja
Some female members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have threatened to drag the organisation to court over allegation of abuses following their refusal to put on the schemes compulsory kits, especially trousers.
The corps members who protested in Abuja, yesterday, said the stance by the NYSC that they must be fully kitted in their regalia during and after orientation runs contrary to their Christian faith.
Some of the protesters alleged that they were humiliated and disgraced by NYSC officials and security agencies for not abiding by the corps dress code.
A female lawyer, Udochi Emmanuel Baba, who spoke on behalf of the protesting corps members, said: “The NYSC Act has not clearly stated what the uniform should be. It only said whatever is given to the corpers, they should accept and wear it.
“The reason we are here today is because year-after-year, female corps members posted to states are being embarrassed, de-kitted, decamped and sent out of the camp on the grounds that they are not putting on trousers. We know that it is a breach of their fundamental human rights as provided for in section 38 (1) of the constitution of our country.
“These trousers they are showing in the banners here, are evoking immorality in the camps and we cannot take it anymore. This was not so in the beginning, way back in the 1970s and 1980s, we had our mothers wearing skirts, and we want to go back to that. We have asked for exemption severally. NYSC has not given that as an option, they have made it a compulsory one-year service for everyone below the year of 30 and they are mandated to wear those clothes.
“We have started negotiations with the government, and we hope that from this dialogue we will get a favourable response. We may ask for a redress in the court,” she said.
A corps member, Patience Noble, said: “I was posted to Ebonyi and when I got there, I told them that I will want to wear my skirts and serve the nation. They insisted that I wear trouser or leave the camp. During the camp there were lots of insults and humiliation – one of military personnel tore the skirts I was wearing on my body.”
