BY GBENGA ARIYIBI
ADO-EKITI— Director-General, National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Brigadier General Maharazu Tsiga, has said scrapping the NYSC scheme would throw over 5,000 workforce currently working with the agency into the labour market, while cases of kidnapping and armed robbery will also increased.

Speaking during a three- day sensitization programme for the staff of the agency in Edo, Delta, Ekiti and Ondo states, at the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp, Ise Ekiti, yesterday, Tsiga said the management of the agency had been saddled with how to provide security for corps members in the country.

According to him, “scraping of NYSC will lead to an increase in kidnapping, robbery and other vices. Mostly importantly it will lead to the unemployment of over 5,000 workforce of the scheme. Security  is a collective responsibility.

I therefore urge parents, corps members, government at all levels and other stakeholders to ensure effective collaborations with the scheme in this regard.”

The Director -General disclosed that no fewer than70 serving Corps Members were presently undergoing training on skill acquisition in Germany and United States of America.

He said 50 Corps members are presently on Skill acquisition programmes in Germany while 20 are in USA for the same programmes at the expense of the Scheme.

The NYSC boss  explained that the foreign training was part of the efforts of the government at reposition the scheme and Corps Members for greater challenges.

Tsiga also disclosed that the NYSC was collaborating with the government of Liberia to provide expertise for the establishment of the Scheme in the Country.

“I am glad to say that due to tremendous achievements of NYSC in the past years and most especially in the conduct of April 2011 general elections, International community is now preparing to accept our Corps Members and Staff of the scheme for training and retraining and mostly on Skill acquisition programmes”, he noted.

He, however called on the  Staff of the scheme to eschew all forms of negative practices capable of running the scheme down end