SGF responds to FOI request on slain corps members

Published: July 2,2013

The corps members were killed in the 2011 electoral violence.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, made by a group of youth organizations, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, on Monday said the sum of N6.1 million was paid to the family of the corps members who were killed in 2011 electoral mayhem.

A group of youth organizations had on April 23, in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (2011), made a request to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) demanding the release of the report of the state of payment of compensation to the families of the deceased youth corps and the status of the prosecution of those arrested in relation to their gruesome murder.

The groups include the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth & Advancement (YIAGA), Centre for Public Policy & Research (CPPR), Cybercrimes Awareness & Fiscal Accountability Foundation (CAFA), Human Rights Volunteer Initiative (HURVI) and Youth Hub Africa.

In his response, the SGF gave a breakdown of the state of the payment of compensation. The report stated that on May 10, 2011, the families of the ten slain corps members got N5 million, N1 million as NYSC Insurance Cover, and N100,000 as transport fare for the representatives of the families to come to Abuja.

The SGF, however, failed to mention the state of the automatic employment that was promised the siblings of the deceased NYSC members.

In 2011 some youth corps members were slain while some were injured during the post election violence in Bauchi State.

President Jonathan, at the time, made a promise at session hosted in the villa that there would be automatic employment for siblings of the deceased corps members into the federal civil service as compensation.

Till date nothing has been heard of the employment status of the siblings.

NYSC ignores FOIA request

The National Youth Service Corps and the Independent National Electoral Commission, however, refused to respond request for information sent by the youth groups.

The SGF had, in a memo dated May 8, 2013, requested the groups to contact the National Youth Service Corps Directorate Headquarters which handled the payment of the compensation to the families of the 10 slain Corps members.

In compliance with the SGF’s directive, the groups in a letter dated June 4, 2013, forwarded another memo to the Director General, National Youth Service Corp, Nnamdi Okore-Affia, notifying him of the SGF’s directive. Mr. Okore-Affia ignored the request making it the second time he would not assent to providing information on the slain corps members.

The groups had previously sent a FOIA request to the NYSC DG’s office demanding information on the status report on the payment of compensation to the families of the dead corps members. Despite the seven days stipulated period under section 4 of the FOI Act 2011, the DG NYSC provided no response.