Presidential awards: Group protests list of Imo nominees for NYSC

A Civil Society Organisation, African Initiative Against Corruption and Examination Malpractice, on Wednesday, in Owerri, Imo State, staged a protest at the National Youth Service Corps state secretariat, demanding immediate review of nominees from Imo for the NYSC presidential merit award list.

It was gathered that a presidential merit award for corps members who served between 2015 and 2017 has been scheduled to hold on Friday.

The group, who threatened showdown with NYSC, however, faulted the list from Imo and accused the Corps of bias.

Addressing top officials of NYSC during the protest, the National Coordinator of the AFICEM, Dr. Francis Abiaye, faulted the nomination and challenged NYSC to show the CDS projects executed by the duo.

He argued that one Mr. Mathew Ajibola who emerged the overall best corps member of Batch A in 2015 after constructing eight rooms ultra modern tourism toilet and biogas digester facility at the Imo State zoological garden should have merited being on the list.

He also said the overall best corps member in Batch A 2016, one Mr. Ademola Sunday who constructed a modern fish pond and carried out major rehabilitation works during his service year should also have also made the list.

“The list of proposed Community Development Project awardees whose selection process is expected to be purely on merit has been over-spiced with bias and usual corruption syndrome.

“The integrity of the list has left many questions for the nominating committee to answer and we are here to demand the projects executed by the two nominees from Imo and to also call for urgent review of the list,” Abiaye said.

He alleged that argued that the two Imo nominees had no “meaningful CDS projects” that could be attributed to their name; threatening that the group will stage a nationwide protest against the “perceived injustice” if the list is not revisited.

Some of the placards displayed by the group read, “Say no to NYSC injustice;” “NYSC please revisit the presidential award list from Imo and nominate those who merit it,” etc.

Responding, the state NYSC Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ugochukwu Orunta, thanked the group for not being violent during the protest and assured them that the message would immediately be transmitted to the NYSC national headquarters for action.