Corps members in Nasarawa protest against non-payment of state allowance

Members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Nasarawa State yesterday protested against the non-payment of their 11 months state allowance.

Their spokesman, James Uzor, appealed to Governor Tanko Al-Makura to prevail on the Ministry of Education to pay them.

He explained that the batch ‘B’, stream 2 corps members “serving in public schools had not been paid the allowance promised by the governor to all corps member serving in the state.

“Other ministries are paying the N5, 000 state allowance except the ministry of education. We have had several meetings with the Commissioner for Education, Aliyu Tijani, and the special adviser on youth on the issue, all to no avail.”

Uzor lamented that the protest became necessary because they would be passing out in less than two weeks.

When contacted, the commissioner claimed that he was not aware that the corps members were serving in the ministry.

He said: “The state coordinator of the NYSC, Zainab Isa, just sent about 2, 000 names of corps members to us, claiming that they are serving under my ministry, but I am yet to verify that.

He explained that he had asked the coordinator to attach a memo to the list to enable the governor to approve the N96 million needed for the payment, which she failed to do.

But the coordinator said the commissioner was being economical with the truth.

According to her: “Anyone who is claiming that he was not aware of these stream B corps members serving in the ministry of education is lying. If anyone had done anything wrong in this regard, he should come out and apologise.

“I compiled the names of the corps members who had not been paid and the months they are being owed and took it to the ministry of education since August. I have the copies of the acknowledgement with me.

She explained that she was reliably informed that the governor approves the allowances every month, and expressed concern that the corps members had not been paid.

Isa denied the allegation that she inflated the number of corps members, adding that the state government and not the NYSC pay the allowances of corps members in the state.

She, however, warned the protesting corps members never to take the laws into their hands, because the state allowance is not their right but a privilege.