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Thursday, March 22, 2012

NSCDC arrests, parades 87 fake Corps members

87 fake Corps members were paraded at the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps’ headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.

The fake Corps members who were mainly females were arrested by the men o
f NSCDC at an illegal camp in Loptik Guest House, along Shagari way in Nasarawa Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

They were camped by an acclaimed agent of National Youth Service Corps who was said to be at large.

While parading the fake Corps members, the NSCDC Head of Public Relations, Mr. Emmanuel Okeh said “our intelligence staff who helped in apprehending them pretended to be one of them. They never knew that he was understudying their activities.”

“It was when they were expecting their deployment that we clamped down on them and arrested 87 of them”, according to Mr. Okeh

He revealed that “with them, we got the regular NYSC call up letter and kits, waiting for deployment to their various places of primary assignment.”

Networking paying off

Deputy Commandant in-charge of Nasarawa Command, Walter Okubuiroh said the Corps was able to achieve the feat because of its restrategising and networking which started last year.

“We have kept surveillance in virtually all locations of the state. In most cases, abnormalities and threat to security have been uncovered while arrested persons are handed over to appropriate quarters”, he said.

He said most of the victims were students from distance learning sections of their various universities and were made to believe that they would be given the opportunity to serve like other students of their school.

“Our investigation shows that, initially, they took them around the State somewhere in Nyanya where they camped for four days before they were taken to a hotel in Nasarawa.”

Investigations on course

The Deputy Commandant said investigations were still on-going in order to apprehend the syndicate.

In 2010, 54 fake corps members were arrested in an illegal camp in Nasarawa State.

He said the NSCDC will continue to partner with other sister agencies to get to the root of the situation.

Most of the arrested graduates claimed they fell into the trap because of their ambition to serve their fatherland.

One of them who pleaded anonymity said she graduated from University of Jos for more than two years and has not been called up for service till date.

“I couldn’t get a job because all the employers were asking for my NYSC certificate. I got N50, 000.00 from my brother to get the call up. I was to pay the balance of N30, 000.00 after deployment”, she revealed.

Another lady who spoke to Daily Trust said she never knew that the syndicate was illegal.

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