Bauchi State office of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has described as “false”, “malicious” and “misleading” news in circulating in the social media that 10 Corps members had died in front of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in the state while waiting to be mobilised for the postponed presidential and National Assembly elections.
The State Coordinator of NYSC), Afolayan James while reacting to a post on Instagram by a Corps Member serving in Bauchi who alleged that 10 of his colleagues had died while waiting at the INEC Headquarters in Bauchi to be posted to their stations as ad-hoc staff during the deferred general elections described the news as mere rumours peddled by a lazy and uninformed person.
The Instagram user, whose identity could not be ascertained as at press time had posted @inecnigeria alleging that the 10 Corps members lost their lives while waiting at the INEC Headquarters to collect sensitive materials for the various places they would be posted to, when a vehicle lost control and rammed into them killing them in the process.
He alleged that: “I am glad to inform you Sirs/Mas that Corpers who were waiting in front of your INEC office in Bauchi State for over 9 hours, close to 10 of them lost their lives yesterday (Friday). So they were just loitering around when a car on top speed loosed it’s brake, ran into them, killed them and left behind so many casualties.”
The Corp Member who claimed in his post that he left the INEC Headquarters immediately after the incident noted that “my live is worth more than all of that just as he also claimed that some of his colleagues kept waiting up till midnight at the INEC Headquarters to hear if the sensitive materials had started being distributed.
He alleged that: “no INEC official came to address us even after the incident. I have been traumatized since yesterday.”
But reacting to the post, the NYSC State Coordinator, described the claim by the Corp Member as “fake news” with no iota of truth.
He said: “Nothing like that happened and you know these days people just cook up stories and post online to mislead and misinform the public. So there is no truth in the story that 10 Corps Members died at the INEC Headquarters in Bauchi.”
According to him, Corps Members are not supposed to go to the INEC Headquarters but to the headquarters of their local government areas where they will be deployed.
Afolayan James added that “the story is false, malicious and misleading and should not be taken seriously” confirming however that two Corps Members were involved in an accident which was not serious or near fatal.
He explained that the two Corps Members were involved in a motorcycle accident, “one had bruises and did not even have to go to the hospital but the other one had a sprint on her hand and leg. We had to take her to the hospital for an x-ray. She is fine and she has spoken. The nature of the sprint is not life-threatening.”
While speaking with Journalists on the telephone from her sick bed, the Corps Member whose name was given simply as Janet, said she and her friend were knocked down by a campaign vehicle.
She said that the accident happened at about 1 pm on Friday when she was on her way to the INEC Headquarters situated off Ahmadu Bello Way in Bauchi metropolis.
“On our way, a campaign vehicle hit us from the back and the bike man and I somersaulted on the road. When I was trying to get up, there was a bike that was coming behind us which lost control and ran over my left leg,” she narrated.
She said that a fellow Corps Member who was also going to the INEC Headquarters saw her lying on the ground, rushed her to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital Bauchi for medical treatment.
Janet further said that the injuries she sustained were not much adding that an x-ray was carried out on her which showed that there were sprints saying that the Doctors were yet to determine the extent of the sprints.
According to her: “There is no fracture, maybe just a dislocation but I feel much better.”
When newsmen visited her at the Teaching hospital, she was seen to be in a stable condition but She refused to give neither her full names nor her full details and she refused that her photograph be taken in order not to throw her parents and relatives into any panic expressing optimism that she is going to be just alright soon.