More than 60 corps members serving in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State have lamented non-payment of their August allowance by the management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) after over three months.
The corps members, numbering about 68 in their WhatsApp group titled, “August Unpaid Allowance,” said more than 100 corps members have not been paid their August allowance. Meanwhile, some of them have completed their national service.
One of the corps members told SaharaReporters that they have followed all the instructions and directives given to them by their state coordinator, Mrs. Oladeindi Foluke, but are still yet to be paid.
SaharaReporters in September reported how the management of the NYSC in the state and the corps members engaged in accusations and counter-accusations over the delayed payment of the corps members’ August allowance.
However, the NYSC management in the state said the corps members who have not received their August allowance are those who missed the deadline given by the NYSC headquarters in Abuja for the monthly biometric clearance, because they travelled without permission.
The affected corps members in September told SaharaReporter that during the last week of August, they were told to come back and do their monthly clearance.
But the NYSC issued an official memo on its Facebook page, debunking the directive because as at then, they had put the clearance on hold because of the protests that held that month.
“But our LGI (Local Government Inspector) told us to come back and do the clearance but before we went for the clearance, our dashboard changed to ‘present.’ so, that month, the clearance was done automatically for us.
“Only for others to be paid and about 150 or 200 were not paid. We were told to come back and do documentation so we could be paid. We went, did documentation and they later paid some and up till now, about 50 of us have not been paid till date despite the complaints we have made,” one of them had said.
The corps member confirmed that the automatic clearance was done nationwide by the NYSC headquarters in Abuja.
But on why they have not been paid, one of the corps members said, “When we asked the LGI, the reason, he said that we did not do our clearance. We told him the clearance was done automatically.
“Most of us that even did the clearance including me, have not been paid. Because they told us to come back and submit our clearance form from our employers and a photocopy of our ID card and most of us did that but we have not been paid.”
He said they were called to come back and do another documentation. He said after doing it, the LGI “insisted that some of us did not come for the clearance”.
He said the affected corps members are in Batches ‘C’, ‘A’ and ‘B’ and that he and those in his ‘C’ batch had spent 11 months already, serving their fatherland, with October being his last month in service.
When the State Coordinator of the NYSC in Ebonyi State, Mrs. Oladeindi Foluke, was contacted, she admitted that some corps members had not received their August allowance.
She said for some time because of the insecurity and threats against corps members in the South-East region, they had not been doing clearance.
According to her, the management had also not been allowing corps members to wear their uniforms or gather for anything.
She told SaharaReporters in September, “The Abakaliki Local Government had an issue. The issue had to do with their biometric system. The system went bad and the LGI came to camp to tell us and we got a directive from Abuja from the Director General that we can do manual clearance for them since we cannot use the system. We told him to go back and do manual.
“They were to submit their monthly clearance forms and for their payment vulture but they (corps members) could not even access their employers and because of the time given for the clearance, they could not meet up. Many of them called me that they were far away. At the end of the day, many of them did not take part in the clearance exercise.
“Those that took part, we paid them but we realised that we did not count all of them and we called Abuja again and we uploaded and paid 215 corps members in the supplementary list. After that, some of them started calling, saying they were there and that they did clearance and we asked them to show evidence.”
She said because corps members get their payment directly from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), “Our own is to upload their names, and when they miss their allowance like that, it is not automatic. They will have to write and I have told them to write. Those that have been writing, we have been forwarding their names to Abuja.”
She accused some of the corps members who are complaining of lying, saying, “Some of them, maybe they were around but could not do the clearance, I don’t know but we have asked them to apply for the payment of their monthly allowance. There is nothing else anybody can do. Why not simply apply and wait for a response from the Central Bank.?”
However, another corps member from the same Abakaliki Local Government Area said, “Aside from the fact that the clearance was done automatically, some of us, including me, still went for the manual clearance without being paid.
“When we were called upon to do our September clearance on September 6th, which required thumb-printing, we raised the issue about some of us not receiving our August allowance. Clearance forms we submitted for August were brought out, and we were told to look for ours. When we found them, a paper was given for us to write down our details, which we did.”
The corps member said that a week later, some people were paid, while others still did not get paid.
A screenshot of the group chat created by the affected Corps MembersIt was learnt that they were again directed to come to the state secretariat and look for their August clearance form again, and that of September as well.
“When we eventually found both, we were further given another directive to write a complaint addressing it to the state coordinator over the unpaid allowance. Our details were further taken again,” the source said.
“Till date, we haven’t received any positive response. How are we to survive in a strange land with N33,000 that we received since July 29?”
On Tuesday, one of the affected corps members who was in Batch “C” Stream 2 and completed his service year on October 31, 2024, said he had still not been paid the August allowance.
He also noted that the affected corps members in Batch ‘C’ Stream 1, who also completed their service on October 10, 2024, have still not been paid.
He said, “The state coordinator called for a meeting immediately your media platform aired the news, we were asked to submit a handwritten application addressed to the state coordinator over the non-payment, a copy of our statement of account for that month was also requested for, and we did all those.
“Surprisingly, we haven’t been paid till now, and no reason has been given as to why.”
However, efforts made by SaharaReporters to get the NYSC state coordinator in Ebonyi State on the phone for comments failed.
