CSO Urges FG to Suspend NYSC Amid Insecurity

The Human Rights and Justice Group International has called on the Federal Government (FG) to suspend the National Youth Service over insecurities emanating from kidnappings and killings ongoing in the country.

The civil society organization stated this against the rising incessant killings and kidnappings by terrorist attacks and other criminal activities in the country.

In February 2023, gunmen reportedly abducted 15 NYSC members at a motor park at Iseke in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State when they were commuting to Lagos. However, the Police command came to their aid in the rescue.

A similar case of highway kidnapping took place in August 2023, when eight Akwa Ibom State tertiary institution graduates who were on a mandatory service to the nation were kidnapped along the Zamfara road as they were commuting for deployment.

In recent times, armed kidnappers invaded the Sagwari community in Abuja on Sunday, January 7, at noon and kidnapped 11 residents, including a mother, her four children, and a receptionist from a nearby hotel.

One of the victims, who is also a final year student of Bayero University, Kano, Talatu Salihu, was killed by the terrorists after her relatives could not pay the ransom demanded of them by the terrorists while also issuing a threat to kill her two siblings if the ransom was not paid.

These are a few of several similar cases becoming a norm yet a pattern of abductions and killings at the failure of victims’ families to pay for the captive release.

CSOs Reaction

Meanwhile, the CSO, Human Rights and Justice Group International, spoke to Punch, stating it stands on the mandatory deployment of NYSC members to states for one year of service to the nation that doesn’t prioritize its safety and security measures in check and balance.

Prince Nze, the CSO’s Executive Director, stated, “For now, due to insecurity, the NYSC should be put on hold. The essence of NYSC is to integrate the youths.

“Today, some youths who went to the North from Akwa Ibom State have not been accounted for over eight months. Their parents are worried, and nobody can account for them.

“For you to ask me to send my children to the NYSC for a nation that has more values for cows than human beings, I cannot subject my children to such a situation because if anything happens to them, the country does not care.”

Insecurity, as an increasing threat to national security, is in dire need of immediate arrest as it is increasingly growing beyond the security apparatus combined.

Read more: Breaking News: Ibile ‘The Notorious Lagos Land Grabber’ Now in Police Custody

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Mayowa Durosinmi

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Mayowa Durosinmi is a Nigerian investigative reporter for West Africa Weekly with reports focusing on politics, human rights, security and health in West Africa and the Sahel region.

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