NYSC BARS CORPERS FROM BORNO AND YOBE

The orientation course for Batch ‘C’ of theNational Youth Service Corps in Borno and Yobestates has been put off indefinitely in order toprotect corps members from Boko Haramattacks.The NYSC in a statement on Wednesdayannounced the indefinite suspension and askedcorps members already posted to the two statesharried by members of the violent Islamic sectlast Friday to remain in their homes to awaitfurther directive.The statement, a copy of which was madeavailable to THE PUNCH on Wednesday, reads,“Owing to security reasons, (the) orientationcourse WILL NOT hold in Borno and Yobe statesuntil further notice.“Prospective corps members posted there shouldawait further directives.“All serving and new corps members areSTRONGLY advised to strictly adhere to thecontents of the security tips distributed tothem.”According to the statement, registration for newcorps members begins on Tuesday, November15, 2011, the cut -off date for Registration is 12midnight Wednesday November 16, 2011 whilethe official closing ceremony is TuesdayDecember 6, 2011.Boko Haram, Friday night, bombed drinkingjoints, churches, mosques and police stations inboth Maiduguri and Damaturu, capitals of Bornoand Yobe respectively, killing about 150 people.Meanwhile the Federal Government onWednesday said it was on top of the securitysituation in the country.Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, atthe end of the weekly Federal Executive Councilmeeting in Abuja, told journalists that thegovernment had in fact recorded many “silentvictories” in the fight against the scourge of themilitant Islamic group.He, however, admitted that the operations of thesect posed a lot of challenges to securityagencies.He said, “All I can tell you for now are thatFederal Government is working round the clockto check the activities of Boko Haram and theresults will soon begin to show.“All of us know that wherever terror raises itsugly head it is not a conventional war, where themilitary of Nigeria will go one side and theterrorists group on the other side for aconfrontation.“Terrorists use undercover attacks, what youcall guerrilla welfare.“They do not operate under the light of self-proclamation of who their identities are. Thereare several countries like Algeria and Pakistanand several others that have come under terrorattack for almost over a decade and in thosecountries up till today, you still have isolatedattacks in spite of all the deployments that havetaken place.“Let me give an example, all those who carriedout the terrorist attack of October 1, 2010 havebeen arrested, all the vehicles they used, all thechannels they used, all the individualsassociated with it are in the custody of securityagencies and are being investigated.“You will also find out that in many places wheresimilar attacks have taken place earlier, arrestshave not been made even in countries that youcan say have greater sophistication in terms oftechnical capacity.”Meanwhile, soldiers have taken over security inand around the Abuja NYSC Camp in Kubwaahead of the commencement of the Batch “C”orientation camp for corps members.Vehicles going into and coming out of the campare thoroughly searched for weapons and othercontraband.Although none of the soldiers was willing tospeak on the deployment, a source in the NYSCconfided in our correspondent that the measurewas pre-emptive.The source pleaded for anonymity because hewas not authorised to speak to the media onsecurity issues.He said, “You know the situation in the country;management cannot leave anything to chance.“The safety of our corps members is of utmostimportance to us, especially in the light of theavoidable loss of innocent lives during the post-election crisis in the north.”In recent past, quite a number of serving corpsmembers had been killed in sectarian attacks inJos, Plateau State, and during the post-2011general elections violence in some parts of thenorthern region.But NYSC has continued to post corps membersto volatile areas of the north despite calls byconcerned Nigerians, especially parents, thatthe areas are not safe for the young graduates.PUNCH NEWSPAPER