NYSC redeploys corpers in Borno as Boko Haram Strikes
DIRECTOR-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Maharazu Tsiga, said, on Wednesday, that the corps members serving in Borno State would immediately be redeployed due to the security situation in the state.
He stated this at the NYSC orientation camp in Maiduguri, while addressing corps members during his nationwide tour of NYSC camps across the country.
He said due to the security situation in Borno State, the NYSC authorities deemed it fit to withdraw corps members from trouble areas, as enshrined in the constitution, adding that Borno State could not be an exception.
The NYSC boss said that not all corps members serving in Borno State would be redeployed, because according him, married women and indigenes of Borno who wished to serve in the state would remain behind and serve in the state.
Brigadier-General Tsiga stated that he was committed to the safety and welfare of all corps members serving in the country, adding that, that was why he fought for the enhanced allowances payable to them.
“I am very happy to announce to you that your allowances have been increased from the meagre N9,600 to N19,800 and whenever you start collecting such money, plan carefully how to spend it.”
He expressed surprise over the text messages going round that outgoing corps members should pay N1, 500 as administrative charges into a certain bank account before collecting their four months allowance arrears, stressing that the NYSC authorities would make sure that such fraudsters would be apprehended and brought to book.
He called on the press to always report, objectively, the activities of the NYSC in order to promote national growth and desist from causing unnecessary tension, as the NYSC was a sensitive national issue.
Boko Haram attacks former gov’s house
Suspected members of the Boko Haram sect, on Wednesday, detonated a bomb outside the residence of the late Borno State governor, Mala Kachalla.
Military spokesman, Colonel Victor Ebhaleme, said that the blast did not hurt anyone.
Mallam Kachalla died in 2007, but his family still resides at the house in Maiduguri.
Prior to the recent attack, Boko Haram struck in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital on Tuesday evening, killing three people riding in a van close to a military checkpoint.
Commander of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), Major General Jack Nwachukwu Nwaogbo, said an explosive went off under the van as its driver slowed down at a military and police checkpoint in Maiduguri.
The blast killed the driver and two passengers.
Authorities blamed Boko Haram for the bombing, one of many attacks that have targeted security officers, local leaders and clerics in and around Maiduguri over the last one year.
General Nwaogbo added that civilians were not cooperating and that some were helping Boko Haram to carry out their attacks and that without the cooperation of residents, the joint military task force could not do anything.
Only, on Monday, the University of Maiduguri announced that it was shutting down indefinitely over threat letters attributed to the group.
University spokesman, Ahmed Mohammed, told newsmen that the institution could no longer guarantee the safety of its students and if anything happened to the students, the university would be held responsible.
The police in Maiduguri had also banned motorcyclists last week in an attempt to stop the group from committing motorcycle-mounted attacks.
The military blamed the Boko Haram sect, which in turn, had claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in northern Nigeria.
Kwara evacuates indigenes from UNIMAID
Following threats and reports of attack by members of the dreaded Islamic religious sect, Boko Haram, in some parts of Borno State, the Kwara State government has ordered an immediate evacuation of students of the state origin studying at the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Maiduguri, the state capital.
The state government has, therefore, dispatched 40 buses to Maiduguri, to convey the students back to their different places of origin in the state.
It will be recalled that the university authorities had, earlier in the week, announced the closure of the institution, following the spate of bombings in the metropolis by the religious sect.
Speaking while addressing drivers, security operatives and other government officials attached to the buses, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Isiaka Gold, cautioned the drivers against excessive speed or any act that could jeopardise the lives of the students.
The SSG also asked the parents of the students to remain calm, adding that the state government took the task of conveying the students back home because of its love for the people of the state.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Gold has noted that one of the major solutions to insecurity in the country was youth employment, saying that if the issue of unemployment was tackled headlong, it would go a long way towards reducing societal ills that had led to a state of insecurity in parts of the country.
He made the observation when the state commandant, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Alhassan Audu Akar, visited him at the Governor’s Office, in Ilorin, on Wednesday.
He said the ongoing registration of unemployed youths in state was part of efforts by the state government to address the problem, while urging the NSCDC to join hands with other security agencies to maintain law and order in the state.
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