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The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) should discontinue posting corps members to particular states plagued by bandit attacks, according to Sani Shinkafi, a former chairman of the Committee on Prosecution of Bandits Related Offenses.
The proposal from Shinkafi comes more than two weeks after eight NYSC personnel were kidnapped along a highway in Zamfara State by armed robbers who reportedly demanded N4 million in ransom for at least one of the captives.
A former candidate for the national chairmanship of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the former candidate said on Monday, “I’m calling on the leadership of NYSC to cease assigning youth corps members to Sokoto, Kebbi, [and] even Zamfara.
Shinkafi criticized Governor Dauda Lawal’s decision to forego holding a “peace dialogue” with remorseful bandits, arguing that Bello Matawalle’s administration’s willingness to engage in such a discourse with terrorists helped secure the release of hostages in Zamfara.
When such a situation arises, he explained, “we used to reach out to these repented bandits and these repented bandits would work with security agencies to either rescue them (victims) or collect them from their captors without paying any ransom.”
But I’m telling you, many individuals were slain and kidnapped during this leadership. Over 2,000 individuals were murdered and abducted. In Zamfara’s 14 local governments, nowhere is secure.
In the March 18 governorship election, Lawal, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), triumphed over Matawalle, who was seeking reelection.
President Bola Tinubu recently installed Matawalle as the Minister of State for Defense.
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