The management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has redeployed its Akwa Ibom State Coordinator, Ekwe N. I. Chinyere, after SaharaReporters’ story of her alleged embezzlement of Corps members’ feeding allowance.
SaharaReporters had reported how corps members undergoing their national service at the Akwa State Orientation Camp of the NYSC lamented poor feeding despite the Nigerian government’s increment of their feeding allowance.
The aggrieved corps members had told SaharaReporters that the state coordinator, Chinyere and other officials allegedly forced bad meals on the corps members, necessitating most of them to spend their personal money buying food.
A source from the camp had told SaharaReporters that the government had increased corps members’ feeding allowance from N650 per day to N1500, placing every meal on N500, but the quality and quantity of the food given to the corps members in Akwa Ibom “is not in any way up to N500.”
The source had said that most corps members were prepared to buy food in the camp market, popularly known as Mammy Market because of low quality of the food in the camp kitchen.
According to the source, many corps members have exited the camp on the grounds of sickness, pregnancy or marriage, “but their feeding allowance goes straight to the pocket of the NYSC officials.”
SaharaReporters had also reported how the corps members raised the alarm that Chinyere collected their phone numbers and threatened to punish them after SaharaReporters reported how the corps members lamented that they were being poorly fed.
SaharaReporters also reported how after SaharaReporters’ stories, the NYSC management ordered the Akwa Ibom State Coordinator to remove firewood from the orientation camp kitchen and replace it with gas cylinders.
On Wednesday, documents obtained by SaharaReporters showed that the NYSC management reposted Akwa Ibom State Coordinator, Chinyere to Niger State in the North Central region of the country.
A top source said, “The Director General of National Youth Service Corps Brigadier General YD Ahmed has removed the NYSC Akwa Ibom state coordinator Ekwe N. I. Chinyere over the alleged embezzlement of corps members’ feeding allowance, forcing corps members to fetch firewood from the camp forests and threatening them with different punishment during the Batch A Stream 1 Orientation course 2024.
“Chinyere Ekwe was posted to North Central NYSC Area Office Minna in Niger State. This posting is not enough to her looking at the various allegations levelled against the woman about what she has been doing for many years, because transfer is normal in public service.
“Even this posting is too soft to the woman since she lives in Abuja with her family.
“The woman has to be probed like other state coordinators who were found guilty and took disciplinary actions against them in accordance with public service rules.
“As I’m filling this report, I want to tell you that the entire NYSC Akwa Ibom Staff and proprietors of all private schools in Akwa Ibom state are jubilating and even organised a committee of 50 members of staff which include proprietors of private schools, serving corps members and Mammy marketers, gate men as well as some casual staff to organize special party to show our esteem appreciation to God for saving our lives from dictatorship to breathe again.”
