From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Seven thousand, eight hundred and two out of a total of 8,900 National Youth Corps Service (NYSC) members currently serving in Kaduna State are expected to serve as ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the forthcoming elections in the state.
The NYSC had stopped posting corps members to volatile areas, including Birni Gwari and Kajuru Local Government Areas of the state, due to security risks involve.
However, the INEC disclosed, in Kaduna, that corps members would be posted to all the 23 local government areas, including Birni Gwari and Kasuwan Magani in Kajuru councils, though with deployment of maximum security agents, to give them cover during the exercise.
Public Relations Officer of INEC in Kaduna office, Sani A Abdulfatah, told Daily Sun in his office, that the interested corps members have already commenced a staggered training across the selected centres in the state.
“What I know is every corps member serving in Kaduna will participate except those who are sick or not interested in the exercise. The four-week training is going to end on Thursday, next week. The training is being staggered in order to accommodate as many as those who wish to participate, in selected centres across the state.
“We just ended Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), consisting of security chiefs in Kaduna; NYSC, National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Army, Police and others who met and decided to have maximum security in trouble spots like Birni Gwari and Kasuwan Magani in Kajuru local government area of the state,” he said.
He added that 537 election supervisors were trained for three days between Wednesday and Friday last week, at Civil Engineering Department, Kaduna Polytechnic, Tudun Wada.
“A little above 200,000 permanent voter cards (PVCs) are yet to be collected. There was rush after the centralisation at ward level. It was more than 300,000 before the rush at ward level last month,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, Assistant Director, Public Relations, NYSC, Sam Nkwopara, called on the participating corps members to steer clear anything that can soil the image of the scheme and that of their families.