African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has called for the immediate suspension and eventual scrapping of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme following the abduction of 19 prospective corps members in Imo State.
The graduates were travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states when gunmen attacked two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in the Umunoha area of Imo State on Thursday.
The incident has raised fresh concerns over the safety of young Nigerians travelling across the country for the compulsory national service programme.
Reacting to the development in a post on X on Saturday, Sowore said the abduction reinforced his longstanding position that the NYSC had “outlived its usefulness in its present form.”
He argued that young Nigerians should not be compelled to travel to unfamiliar parts of the country when the government could not guarantee their safety.
“You cannot force young Nigerians to ‘serve their fatherland’ when the same country cannot guarantee their safety while they travel to their places of service,” Sowore said.
He called for the immediate suspension of the scheme and its eventual abolition, while proposing that corps members should, in the interim, be allowed to serve within their states of origin.
Sowore also proposed replacing the NYSC with a two-year voluntary National Job Corps focused on employment, skills development, public works, technology, agriculture, healthcare and education.
The abduction has also triggered a search-and-rescue operation by security agencies. The Imo State Police Command initially said 10 victims had been rescued while noting that the exact number of people still in captivity was being verified.
However, subsequent reports put the number of prospective corps members still held by the abductors at 19. The state Commissioner of Police, Audu Garba Bosso, said security operatives had located the suspected kidnappers’ camp using drone surveillance but were exercising caution after intelligence indicated that the area had been planted with improvised explosive devices.
The police said efforts were continuing to rescue the victims safely and apprehend those responsible for the attack.
