The Director-General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General, Shuaibu Ibrahim, has reacted to claims that a top officer who was posted to the permanent orientation camp in Kano State died of COVID-19 in camp.
Ibrahim in an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday explained that the officer was tested before he entered the camp and was taken to the isolation center after he tested positive and eventually died in isolation.
“It is not true that the officer died in the camp, in line with the PTF and NYSC guidelines all prospective corps members and camp officials that are invited for the orientation exercise were tested. It is mandatory that all must be tested. It is only those that are negative that are allowed into the camp.
“Those that are positive are taken away by the NCDC and state officials for treatment and that was what happened. The officer concerned just like any other NYSC officials underwent the test and when he was positive he was taken by the NCDC to Kano State isolation center and that was where, unfortunately, he passed on, not in the camp,” the DG explained.
The NYSC boss stressed that there are not NYSC members that are positive inside the camp as they were all tested before entry into the orientation camps.
According to him, NYSC orientation camps across the country are supervised by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
“I have always cleared the air that it is only those that are negative that are allowed into the camp. Those that are positive are taken away by NCDC.
“We were the first agency to give NCDC our modalities for camp re-opening and they looked at it critically along with the PTF and the approval was granted.
“Even I was tested along with my officials. None of our officers died in the camp,” the NYSC DG said.
The Federal Government last week threatened to shut down any NYSC orientation camp that violates the COVID-19 protocol.
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare gave the warning at the media briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, held in Abuja.
The Minister said the lives and health of the corps members are a priority to the government and the affected camps will be shut and the corp members will be reposted to nearby states to continue the orientation exercise.
– Camp Testing –
No fewer than 34,685 people were recently tested for COVID-19 across all the NYSC camps in the country.
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, disclosed this in November at the briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 in Abuja.
He told reporters that those whose samples were collected included corps members and NYSC officials in various camps.
