National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has called for deployment of more troops to its orientation camps nationwide in view of the growing security challenges.
Chairman, Governing Board of NYSC, Fatima Abubakar, made the call when she led members of the board on a courtesy visit to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Ibrahim Attahiru, yesterday, in Abuja.
She said the call for more deployment was as a result of growing sizes of the camps and the nature of the current security environment.
The board chairman also called for collaboration between NYSC and the army to the safety of corps members during elections.
“We are pleading that you beef up troops at the NYSC camps because the camps have become so large these days.
“In a particular camp, sometimes we have more than 1,000 young men and women during orientation and we don’t have enough troops.
“Constantly, we are scared and we hope nothing like that will happen around our camps but we are pleading for beef up of troops around our orientation camps.
“We are also asking for collaboration between army and the scheme in areas of capacity and human resource building.
“We also hope the army can teach safety and escape drills to corps members and staff on issues of safety and security in the unfortunate event of an attack during and after orientation programme,” she said.
Abubakar said the army, being the second major stakeholder in the NYSC scheme, had continued to play its statutory role by sending commandants to man NYSC camps.
She commended the army for the provision of limited training and security to corps members during orientation camps and national assignments such as elections.
