Gloria Essien, Abuja
The House of Representatives has called on the Federal government to provide employment opportunities for members of the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC) who were victims of violence while serving as electoral officials in the 2023 general elections.
The House has also directed the NYSC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to compile a comprehensive list of corps members who participated in the elections and suffered from electoral violence.
This resolution was made following a motion put forward by Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo, advocating for the employment of affected corps members in the civil service or INEC.
In his lead debate, Hon. Ukpong-Udo highlighted that INEC engaged approximately 200,000 corps members as ad-hoc staff during the 2023 general elections. He further noted that corps members constituted about 80% of the ad-hoc staff deployed by INEC for the elections.
Expressing concern, the lawmaker revealed that some of the corps members “were reported to have been victims of election violence, sustaining injuries from gunshots and machetes during the polls.”
Despite facing threats, the corps members demonstrated unwavering commitment to ensuring the successful conduct of the 2023 elections in their assigned roles, emphasized Hon. Ukpong-Udo.
He stressed, “In recognition of their sacrifice for this important national assignment, it is necessary to employ the corps members who were victims of election violence to compensate for their losses and to encourage future participation.”
