KOREDE FOGO
The National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), Ondo State, has raised the alarm over the rate at which Corps members engage in drug abuse.
Speaking at the 2021 Corps Employers’ Workshop in Akure, the Ondo state Coordinator of the scheme, Mrs Victoria Ani, said the rate of drug abuse among them was worrisome.
She, however, called for collaborative efforts from all stakeholders in addressing the increasing rate of drug abuse and addiction among Corps members in the country.
Ani who further expressed worries over the addiction rate urged corp members’ employers to assist in rehabilitating them rather than rejecting them.
Some of the stakeholders, who attended the workshop, had complained that many corps members deployed in their establishments for places of primary assignment engaged in various acts of drug abuse and smoking of weed (Indian hemp).
In her reaction Ani said: “For the Corps members that take weed, I need to let you know that NYSC is doing so much. Many of our children are drug addicts. I am talking out of experience. When we go to camp, we start from day one to tell them that if they were into it, it was an opportunity for them to drop such habits.
“In our very last orientation, we had one that was suffering from withdrawal syndrome. We were managing this boy and he eagerly wanted to take more. As a matter of fact, when we are going to the orientation camp, we take so many collaborative agencies including NDLEA, counsellors, people who talk to the ones that are really into this (drug addicts).
“For instance, I never knew that this TomTom, when you put it inside Coca Cola, will make you high. I never knew that when they hold Lacaserra, you will think it is Lacassera. Even Known seasoning cubes that you and I use in cooking. These children will put it inside Lacassera, drink it and they are high.”
She stated further, “Another female Corps member brought over one hundred tablets of Diazepam drugs to the camp. So the issue of drug abuse is getting alarming.
Some will wake up at midnight and be shouting.”
In his good will message, the Director- General of the National Youth Service Corps, Brig.- Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim told Corps members’ employers that they have no authority to approve movement of Corps members outside the state of deployment.
The DG was represented by Director, NYSC South West Area office, Mr Tunde Fadairo.
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