Sowore Calls for NYSC Abolishment After Corps Members Kidnapped

Omoyele Sowore, the African Action Congress presidential candidate, has urged for the immediate suspension and eventual scrapping of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme after the abduction of prospective corps members in Imo State. This incident occurred when gunmen attacked two buses along the Owerri-Onitsha Road, with victims traveling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.

Sowore stated that the abduction highlights the dangers of requiring graduates to travel across the country for national service, asserting that the NYSC has "outlived its usefulness in its present form." He proposed that corps members should have the option to serve within their states of origin and suggested replacing the NYSC with a two-year voluntary National Job Corps focused on employment and skills development. The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, has deployed Deputy Inspector-General of Police Shehu Nadada to coordinate the search for the abducted individuals, as security agencies work to rescue them.