By Demola Akinyemi & JIMITOTA ONOYUME
PORT HARCOURT— Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Brigadier-General, M. I. Tsiga and the traditional rulers in the Niger Delta region disagreed yesterday on the continuity of the NYSC scheme following the killing of youth corpers in the northern part of the country by some hoodlums who were protesting the last presidential election result.

While the traditional rulers in the Niger Delta region called on the Federal Government to either scrap the scheme or restrict their service to their state of origins, Tsiga described those calling for the abolition of the scheme as enemies of Nigeria, assuring that the scheme will not be scrapped.

The traditional rulers who spoke at the end of their meeting in Port Harcourt under the aegis of Association of Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria, TOMPCON said it was really sad and painful that corps members became the target for attack by the blood thirsty and riotous youths involved in the protest.

A Corps member during orientation

The NYSC D-G, who spoke at the 2011 annual Management Conference entitled, “Reviving and strengthening discipline in the NYSC scheme,” said that the scheme would not be scraped because, it has remained one of the forces that unite the people of the country.

He believed that instead of calling for its scrap, they should rather call for the prosecution of those behind the killing of the corps members during the general election.

He expressed his gratitude to President Goodluck Jonathan for his show of concern, saying the NYSC  has paid N5 million, as directed by the President, to the bereaved families and the offer of automatic employment to direct siblings of the deceased corps members.

“We have paid the money to the families of those corps members that lost their lives as directed by Mr. President and we have also called on their parents to forward the names of those that will be given automatic employment by the President,” he said.