The National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC) has advised its members traveling on high risk roads such as Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja-Lokoja, Okene or Aba-Port-Harcourt to alert their family members, friends and colleagues in order to have someone on hand to pay off the ransom that could be demanded.
This was contained in the NYSC Security Awareness and Education Handbook for Corps Members and Staff.
The security handbook which was introduced in March 2021, stated: “When traveling in high risk road such as Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja-Lokoja-Okene or Aba-Port-Harcourt road, then alert your family members, friends and colleagues in order to have someone on hand to pay off the ransom that could be demanded,” Security Awareness and Education Handbook for Corps Members and Staff said between pages 58 and 59.
However, NYSC issued a statement describing the manual as fake.
“Management wishes to emphatically state that the clause quoted is not embedded in NYSC Security Tips pamphlet which was put together by a highly respected retired security expert,” it added
But corps members who reacted on the incident confirmed the manual, even as he sent screenshot of their own hard copies and separately confirmed receiving the handbook from their respective camps.
One of the Corp members said: “I did not even read the document until I saw online comments and I went to open my own copy to check and found that the paragraphs were exactly the same as those posted online.”
The handbook also warned corps members to desist from traveling with their laptops, tablets and mobile devices, adding that any banking information found on such devices might be used to determine a victim’s financial worth.