As corps members serving under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) serving in various states had their passing-out parade (POP) amidst joy and fanfare, the story was different in Adamawa state with Governor Murtala Nyako blocked.
In Yola, the state capital, what was supposed to be joy and feeling of missing one another was turn to protest by aggrieved corps members who served at the Post-primary School Management Board.
The corps members in their hundreds, who had served in various post-primary schools across the state, took to the streets, blocking the entrance leading to the personal residence of Governor Nyako along Dou-Gierei GRA.
Normal official activities were brought to a standstill as the angry corpers held staff hostage for several hours while many workers were chased out of their offices but were not allowed to leave the board premises.
The corps members, who were demanding for their one year allowances, alleged to have been withheld since they commenced the mandatory one-year service.
A protesting corps member, Mr Ajiboye Tajudeen, fumed: “When we got our posting to the post-primary school board we were told that they would pay at the end of our service year, now today we are through nobody has come to tell us why we have not gotten our N22,000.”
When contacted on his mobile phone, the Executive Secretary of Adamawa Post-primary School Management Board, Mr. Ayuba Njjodi, who ran for his life, said he had not gotten money for the payment.
“As I speak with you now I am with the secretary to the state government over the situation.”
He however denied that he had collected the corps members’ allowances.
Security operatives were later deployed to disperse the protesting corps members.