Corps member allege extortion under guise of skills acquisition in Karu

Some National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members serving in Karu local government of Nasarawa State have alleged that the NYSC local government inspector was using the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Department (SAED) to extort them.

The corps members who spoke under the condition of anonymity for fear of being victimized said they had been forced to pay for skills training that they had not been able to attend.

The Batch A corps members, who are due to pass-out soon were denied final clearance on account of them not paying for their SAED training, which our reporter learnt was not compulsory.

“I already have skills in tailoring so I did not see any need in paying to acquire new skills in cosmetology. I feel so frustrated that the inspector has refused to clear me for my passing out parade next week,” she lamented.

She explained that about 53 of them had their names posted at the NYSC local government secretariat at Ado, Karu, with the threat from the local government inspector that if they did not pay for the training, they would not be cleared.

“When we persisted yesterday, he asked us to write an undertaking that if we are cleared we must pay. The amount is N5, 500 but it is difficult for some of us to raise it because we are not paid state allowance. Besides, we did training to participate in the election but some of our names were thrown out and we were not paid the training allowance. So if there is any justice in this country we should be the ones asking to be paid,” she added.

Our reporter, however, learnt that among those whose names were pasted at the NYSC secretariat some paid the money and they were cleared.

The Karu local government inspector of the NYSC, Mr James Ogunleye Oladele, while replying to a text message sent to his mobile phone number said he was not the trainer, explaining that “some corps members with skills are also training their colleagues while others registered outside NYSC are paying triple the amount  SAED trainers are charging.”

He added that “some youth corps members can be mischievous. Some of them have received training and they don’t want to pay for their trainers.

“Please ask those who are raising false accusations did I force them to register for any skills? Nobody is denied clearance for whatever reason.”