Sowore calls for NYSC suspension after Imo abductions
Omoyele Sowore has urged the Federal Government to suspend and eventually abolish Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps scheme after prospective corps members were abducted in Imo State. He said graduates should not be compelled to travel across the country for national service while security agencies cannot guarantee their safety.
African Action Congress presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has called for the immediate suspension and eventual scrapping of Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps scheme after prospective corps members were abducted in Imo State. The victims were among passengers taken when gunmen attacked two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in the Umunoha area on Thursday. They had been travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The Imo State Police Command said security agencies had rescued some of the victims and were continuing efforts to locate those still missing. The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, deployed the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Operations, Shehu Nadada, to coordinate the search-and-rescue operation. Two commissioners of police were also deployed.
In a post on X on Saturday, Sowore said the incident demonstrated the risks created by requiring graduates to travel to unfamiliar parts of the country. He said the NYSC had “outlived its usefulness in its present form”, a position he said he had held since his first presidential bid in 2019. “You cannot force young Nigerians to ‘serve their fatherland’ when the same country cannot guarantee their safety while they travel to their places of service,” Sowore said.
He called for the scheme to be suspended and ultimately scrapped, while proposing that corps members be allowed to serve within their states of origin in the interim. Sowore also proposed replacing the NYSC under what he called a “Sowore 2027 presidency” with a two-year voluntary National Job Corps. He said the programme would focus on employment, skills development, public works, technology, agriculture, healthcare, education and other areas of national development.
Saturday PUNCH reported that abductors had demanded N50m each for 19 prospective corps members, a total of N950m. The incident has renewed concerns about the safety of participants travelling between states for compulsory national service.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.