THE LEADERSHIP of the National Youth Service Corp has refused to answer questions over preventive measures in place to avoid an outbreak of Coronavirus during the compulsory three weeks orientation camp for Prospective corp members.
The ICIR called the NYSC spokesperson, Adenike Adeyemi three times at exactly 10: 50 on Friday morning but she refused to answer her calls.
A text message was also sent to her asking if there is any plan in place to prevent an outbreak of the disease during the three-week orientation camp across the nation.
She was also asked if there could be a postponement of the camping pending the time proper preventive measures would be in place but as at the moment of filing this report, she is yet to respond to the message from The ICIR.
Despite a confirmed case of the deadly virus in Nigeria, NYSC has not made an official statement concerning the orientation camp.
According to NYSC, the orientation camp will commence on Tuesday, March 10th and run till Monday, 30th March.
And the NYSC authorities has invited Nigerian students who schooled outside of the country for the orientation camping.
Some prospective corp members have expressed concerns about the three weeks camping due to the confirmed cases of coronavirus in Lagos state.
A social media user who identified himself as Phaiz Paints replied to a message by NYSC, saying that the camping is postponed until further notice.
” I sincerely hope NYSC would have to postpone camping of Corp members till further notice in other to curtail the spread of the coronavirus,” Phaiz wrote.
Speaking to a prospective corp member from Ekiti State University, Kofoworola Fadimuluyi, she told The ICIR reporter that there is an urgent need for postponement of the camping.
“Although I have been looking forward to the three weeks camping I feel it should be postponed because of the dangers that may come out of it,” she said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had advised that social gatherings be reduced as an effort to curtail massive infection of the disease.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via labolade@icirnigeria.org, on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94