So about two
weeks ago, a female corps member Temitope Adedewe, was battered and her two
teeth removed with a hammer by a male corps member? What could have led
to such
craze?
Two weeks
later the National Youth Service Corps headquarters Abuja is yet to officially
react.
Also her NYSC
discharge certificate, which was withheld for purportedly breaching the NYSC
code of conduct and reporting the matter to the police in Arochukwu, Abia
State, where the incident happened, is yet to be issued to her.
The Nation
reports that there is strong allegation that her assailant, Oluwabusiyi Adeola
Bolarinde is already studying for his Master’s at the University of Ibadan,
which could not have been possible if he didn’t produce his NYSC discharge
certificate.
The corps’
Director of Public Relations, Mrs. Abosede Aderibigbe was not available for
comments on the issue. Efforts to reach her on phone were also abortive, as her
phones were switched off and she did not respond to text messages.
A source at
the Welfare Department in Abuja, who spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted
that they are aware of the case and have started looking into it.
He said steps
are being taken to resolve the issue, and a concrete decision is expected to be
reached on the matter next week.
Meanwhile, the
victim of the battery, Miss Adedewe said she is yet to get any concrete
information from the Abuja office or anywhere. According to her, she only got a
call from a lady, who claimed to be of the NYSC Abuja head-office. The caller
who initially did not reveal her identity or position later gave her name as
Benedict E. She refused to reveal her official position and requested the
aggrieved ex-corps member to come to Abuja to tell her side of the story, since
they have commenced investigation on the matter.
Miss Adedewe
said the lady told her they had visited the Abia State Zonal office in Umuahia
and the venue of the incident in Arochukwu on a fact-finding mission. She said
while there, they had asked Mrs. Akuma, one of the zonal office’s staff and a
principal player in the issue to send for her and that she said all attempts to
reach her from Umuahia had failed.
Adedewe
however saidrevealed that she never got any call or messages from Mrs. Akuma.
She also said the caller from the NYSC behaved in a suspicious manner by
refusing to disclose her identity.
However, Mrs.
Busayo Obisakin, facilitator of Women’s Inspiration Development (WID), the NGO
that had originally taken up her case and petitioned the NYSC, advised her not
to make any trip to Abuja but to insist on telling her side of the story on
phone.
She said the
caller had asked her for some phone numbers, including that of the nurse who
treated her at the hospital in Arochukwu, which she said she did not have.
Adedewe wondered why she didn’t visit the hospital and get the nurse’s phone
number, while she was in Arochukwu.
According to
her, the caller directed her to stop any media attention on it as they are
already looking into the matter.
Follow Solenzo Blog on
0 Comments