THE House or Representatives on Tuesday summoned the Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Brig General Sule Kazaure, over the death of three corps members at the NYSC orientation camps.
The three corps members who died during the ongoing 2016 Batch ‘B’ (Stream I) Orientation Course in Bayelsa, Kano and Zamfara states are Chinyerum Nwenenda Elechi, Ifedolapo Oladepo and Monday Asuquo Ukeme.
The NYSC boss is expected to appear before yet to be named ad hoc committee of the House to explain the circumstances which led to the deaths.
The House resolution followed a motion by Honourable Olufemi Fakeye entitled, “unfortunate and avoidable death of Miss Ifedolapo Oladepo, a corps member at the NYSC Orientation camp, Kano”, but the motion was broaden to cover other deaths recorded in the ongoing orientation exercise for corps members.
In his motion, Honourable Fakeye noted that the demise of the 26 years old first class graduate of Aviation and Transport Management of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology was avoidable.
According to him, the deceased was sick a few days after she reported to the orientation camp and promptly reported the condition to camp authorities, stressing that the authorities initially thought she feigned the sickness in order to dodge the routine strenuous exercises at the orientation camp.
The lawmaker also stated that though the deceased was admitted to the camp clinic under the supervision of NYSC doctor supported by NYSC nurses, adding that, “the camp clinic may not have been adequately equipped, as the late Ifedayo was reportedly give some “Placebo” and later injected with some substance, following which a lot of rashes manifested all over her body and her tongue became twisted”.
Contributing to the motion, Deputy Speaker, Honourable Lasun Yusuf, said that the death of the female corps members was very unfortunate.
The Deputy Speaker, however charged the House committee on Youth Development to do proper oversight on NYSC activities.
The Majority Leader of the House, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, on his part said that, the state of NYSC orientation camps should be looked into adding that, permanent orientation camps should be built nationwide with fully equipped medical facilities.
The proposal he said should be captured in the 2017 budget, adding that there should be health insurance for all youth corps members for the one year period of NYSC.
Honourable Bode Ayorinde in his own contribution said that, the state of orientation camps nationwide calls for urgent attention and those urgent steps should be taken to forestall future occurrence.
The motion was adopted after it was put to vote by the Speaker, Honourable Yakubu Dogara.