The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has on Tuesday, refuted claims in an online publication that stated the total sum of money, corps members participating in the general election are entitled to be paid.
NYSC explained that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had directly paid a training allowance of N4,500 to the corps members for trainings held before the elections.
A statement made available to Nigerian Tribune by NYSC stated that "for each of the two elections, a corp member is entitled to a sum of N13, 000, with the break down of N9, 000; N3, 000 and N1, 000 for honoraria, transportation and feeding, respectively, bringing the total allowance due to each corp member to N26, 000."
The NYSC added that the fund for this was approved by INEC and remitted directly into each of the NYSC state secretariat's account, a week before the presidential and National Assembly elections.
NYSC faulted the online report that had initially placed the total sum at N53, 500, saying this was a ploy to dissuade corp members from participating in the April 11 election, for reasons yet to be ascertained.
The statement read in part: "Our preliminary investigation has so far indicated that this publication did not emanate from our corps members and it is a mischievous circulation by some unscrupulous elements to discourage corps members from participating in the next election for whatever reasons best known to them."
NYSC confirmed that so far, the N13, 000 had been paid corp members for the presidential and National Assembly elections, and urged those who have not received theirs to channel complaints to the right authorities.
Also, it directed that the allowance for the coming gubernatorial and state assembly elections be paid in advance by all NYSC State Secretariats, by Friday, April 10.
