The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) says it is set to partner with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to tackle cybercrime during mobilization and insecurity at NYSC farms nationwide.
The NYSC Director-General, Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, said this when Dr. Ahmed Audi, the NSCDC Commandant-General, paid him a courtesy visit at the NYSC Headquarters on Tuesday in Abuja.
Ibrahim said criminals either attempt to bribe NYSC officials or infiltrate the NYSC portal to manipulate information and the mobilization process of the scheme.
He added that “we want the NSCDC to be involved in tracking these criminals and prosecute them. We know that the NSCDC has the power to prosecute and so we wish to work together to address all cyber-related crimes affecting the NYSC.
“We want to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NSCDC in this regard. Some unscrupulous elements always try to compromise our mobilization process by either bribing officials or infiltrating our cyberspace.”
Ibrahim noted that although the scheme boasts of farms across the country, insecurity had made it difficult for youth corps members to utilize the service year to learn agribusiness.
He explained that “the NYSC has made it a priority to train corps members on skill acquisition and some of them go into the agribusiness where they are trained on everything related to farming.
“The NYSC has invested in the agribusiness with farmhouses across the country to enable corps members to do research on what they have learned but they need protection to do this.
“Insecurity is a major challenge for corps members as this has made it difficult for them to carry out any activities on the farms.
“The NYSC wishes to partner with the NSCDC to provide adequate security to corps members using these farms.”
The director-general urged the NSCDC to deploy its personnel to NYSC farms in the country to provide security for corps members and allow them to take advantage of the entrepreneurial opportunity.
Ibrahim while reiterating the long-standing cordial relationship between both agencies, also urged the NSCDC to help to protect corps members traveling, especially at night.
“I hope the NSCDC will also open its doors to corps members who are stranded on the roads or those who need protection from insecurity associated with night journeys,” he added.
Earlier, the NSCDC boss had said that his visit to the NYSC was to strengthen the existing cordial relationship both organizations had enjoyed over the years.
He said that part of the mandate of the NSCDC was to protect farmers, including agro-allied companies and investments in the country.
This, the NSCDC boss noted, made the corps establish a specialized unit called the “agro rangers unit” and train the personnel in a tactical recognizance to enable them to provide security to farmers in their farms.
The commandant-general also said “we have recently been saddled with the responsibility of coming up with a safe school injective program geared toward providing security to schools across the country.
“We conducted a vulnerability study of our schools and realized that out of the 81,000 schools in Nigeria, over 60,000 are porous. This means that these schools do not have the physical presence of any security personnel or parameter fencing.
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“The Federal Government, states, and the local governments are all responsible for providing the parameter fencing and personnel for the different schools because these schools are public schools.
“The NSCDC needs the support of the military to work together. We need to adopt credible intelligence and take action on it.”
Audi also urged the public to always furnish the corps with information to enable it to work efficiently, assuring that any information received would be treated confidentially.
