The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has restricted corps member postings to three Kebbi local government areas following heightened insecurity due to bandit attacks.
The NYSC officially disclosed that the Augie, Arewa, and Sakaba areas have been excluded from deployment for NYSC members over occurrences of kidnapping by terrorists which has caused loss of lives and properties in the area and the country at large.
Speaking on the development on Wednesday, the NYSC Coordinator in Kebbi State, Bala Kagarko, disclosed that the security situation has forced the scheme to significantly scale down deployments across the state, adding that the increasing threat level has made it unsafe to continue posting corps members to high-risk communities.
“For the safety of corps members, we are no longer posting them to Augie, Arewa and Sakaba local government areas of the state,” Kagarko said.
“The worsening security climate has disrupted essential service delivery in education and healthcare, and as corps members often constitute a major workforce in understaffed institutions the directive is important to be carried out.
“The shortages are now being felt across key sectors due to reduced postings. We no longer have enough doctors to post to state hospitals, and there are not enough corps members to deploy to schools and other areas where they are needed to contribute to development,” he said.
In addition, he noted that Kebbi State now records one of the lowest corps member allocations nationwide, stressing that repeated appeals have been made to relevant authorities for intervention without any decisive response so far.
The decision comes against the backdrop of renewed banditry in parts of the country, with recent violent incidents heightening tension in affected communities.
The Guild had reported last week how Lakurawa insurgents reportedly killed at least 20 residents in Fasken Rafi, a community in Arewa LGA, one of the areas now excluded from NYSC postings.