NYSC officials plead with corpers not to abandon election despite their terrible ordeals

NATIONAL Youth Service Corps (NYSC) officials have appealed to corps members to shelve the idea of boycotting the general elections following the challenges they encountered last weekend before the polls were cancelled.

NYSC corp members serve as ad-hoc Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) staff during elections and last weekend, thousands of them were posted across the country to serve at polling units. However, poor logistics meant that there were no facilities on the ground for them and numerous corpers had to sleep in fields or in vehicles as there was no provision for their accommodation or feeding.

There are now fears that several of them may boycott the rescheduled exercise after Inec rescheduled the presidential and National Assembly polls for February 23 and the gubernatorial and state house of assembly elections for March 9. However, Alhaji Ahmed Ikaka, the NYSC coordinator in Enugu State, said boycotting the elections would have adverse effect on the conduct of the exercise as no fewer than 10,000 of the ad hoc staff were drawn from the corps.

Alhaji Ikaka added: "Some of them who were posted to Igboeze Local Government Area of the state said they went through difficulties and even had to sleep in the farms. Others who were posted to Awgu Local Government Area of the state said they were already sleeping in a pavilion in an open field when the chairman of the area, Stanley Okeke intervened.

“We are reaching out to them and encouraging them not to be deterred. They know the importance of this election because it is about their future.”

He added that the federal government had spent a lot of resources to mobilise corpers for the exercise, as such, sacrifices needed to be made by not only them but every Nigerian under the prevailing circumstances. Alhaji Ikaka said: “It is better to delay and get it right than to rush and get it wrong.”