The National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, has appealed to Federal Government and other stakeholders to come to the aid of the Cross River State Secretariat in Calabar to rebuild the large number assets that were destroyed amid the #EndSARS protest hijacked by hoodlums.
Mohammed Nakamba, the Cross River State coordinator of NYSC, on Friday, October 30, 2020, inspected the vandalized Secretariat in company of the Commissioner for Youth and Skill Acquisition, Signor Omang Idiege and Chairman Cross River State Youth Council, Comrade Nkanu Obo.
He noted that the next batch of Corp members are expected in the state by November 10th but the state risk missing corpers mobilized to the state if nothing is done to mitigate the difficulty that has been brought to the state secretariat by the hoodlum who looted and vandalized the office, including operational vehicles.
Speaking to news men after the inspection, the Commissioner expressed unpleasant surprised at the extent of destruction he witnessed at the NYSC Secretariat.
He noted that they hoodlums came with all manners of artisans that were able to achieve the level of hacvoc. “That’s why I lack words to expressed the level of damage and surprise.”
According to him, “the Governor is so touched and embarrassed despite all his efforts to ensure that all is well with the youths, particularly since the inception of his office, he makes sure that all his policies were geared towards youth development.”
The Commissioner of Youths further disclosed that, “just last week the Governor, Prof Ben Ayade sent me to Abuja to meet with the Senior Special Assistant to the president on youths and students affairs, Nasir Adhama to discuss how Cross River State needs to partner with FG on issues that concerns youth development, only to returned and witnessed this.”
“What impression will he have now on the youths of Cross River State. Where did we go wrong to witness this kind of act? And to the perpetrators of this act, I don’t think God will forgive them and they will surely be exposed by God’s grace”.
Signor urged the NYSC Coordinator in the state to ensure that inventories of the vandalised Secretariat were properly documented to enable him brief the Governor vividly and he appealed to the federal government to quickly intervene because the level of damage is too high.
He assured that the state government will do its best for the sake of the anticipated batches of Corper’s and Cross Riverians.
On his part, the NYSC State coordinator, Alhaji Mohammed Nakamba expressed gratitude to the Almighty that no staff and Corp member’s live was lost in all of this series of mishap.
He maintained that the attacked on the Secretariat will seriously affect NYSC operations in the state being that all utility vehicles were vandalized including the Ambulance and noted that in all of these, the NYSC camp at Obubra is still intact.
Nkanu Obo, the chairman Cross River Youth Council, commiserate with the NYSC and assured that the council will do all it can to ensure that most of the looted items are recovered.
“We take total exception about the saying that youths of Cross River State are responsible for this. The state have been invaded by unknown people and we are already having Intel where some items that were looted are. So as a council, we are confident that we are going to help government to ensure that most of the items are recovered. We have learnt our lessons, we have understood that someone can invade us and of course, God willing, this will not repeat itself.”
Also speaking, the NYSC Public Relations Officer, Enuma Peter reiterated that the incident came at a point where the state is anticipating Corp members and appealed on the government to hurriedly fix some basic things like the office furniture, operations vehicles, and computer systems to enable the state participate in the forthcoming Corp members deployment.
“It will take the grace of God, the help of state Government and federal intervention for us to be able to fix most of the things at the moment. We are only appealing that the government should do it in a hurry so that we will not miss the forthcoming camp which will tentatively start on 10th November peradventure, Corp members are not posted to the state, it will not be good for us here and to the state at large.”
Source: The Nation
