Outrage As NYSC Warns Corps Members To Inform Their Family To Prepare Ransom Before Traveling 

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has advised corps members to make security-based arrangements with their loved ones before embarking on a road trip to their places of deployment.

A newly introduced NYSC security advisory asked serving as corps members to inform their family members and friends before embarking on a road trip so as to enable them to prepare sufficient ransom that may be required if they are abducted.

A security awareness handbook introduced in March 2021 read; “When travelling in the high-risk roads such as Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja-Lokoja-Okene or Aba-Port-Harcourt road, then alert your family members, friends and colleagues, in order to have someone on hand to pay off the ransom that could be demanded” .

The NYSC issued a statement to deny the manual as fake news after it circulated on social media on Thursday, boosted by known personalities, including UK-based medical doctor Olufunmilayo Ogunsanya.

“Management wishes to emphatically state that the clause quoted is not embedded in NYSC Security Tips pamphlet which was put together by a highly respected retired security expert,” the NYSC said in a statement sent to The Gazette on Thursday night.

But corps members who spoke with Peoples Gazette confirmed the manual, sent screenshots of their own hardcopies and separately confirmed receiving the handbook from their respective camps in Taraba and other states in March 2021.

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“I received my own copy in March 2021 before I left the camp, I did not even read the document until I saw online comments and I went to open my own copy to check and found that the paragraphs were exactly the same as those posted online, ” said John Elochukwu, who recently concluded his youth service.

The handbook also warned corps members to desist from travelling with their laptops, tablets and mobile devices, saying whatever banking information found on such devices might be used to examine a victim’s financial worth.