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General News of Thursday, 22 April 2021

Source: www.mynigeria.com

‘Pay us our allawee’ – Delta State ex-corpers cry out

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members who served in Delta State last year, 2020, have expressed their disappointment in the failure of the state to pay them their service allowances.

According to them, the state owes them a total of 60,000 naira, as they were supposed to be paid 5,000 naira every month for the year, but they are still yet to receive their monies.

MyNigeria speaks to NYSC graduates; Chindinma, Prince, Ayomide, and James on Monday, April 19, to share their experiences.

According to Chindinma, she spent lots of her money for transportation from her place of residence to her place of posting (POP), and sadly, she lost her mother as well during this same period, so she was heavily burdened financially. She hoped the Delta State government will pay her allowance but she feels her hope is on the verge of getting shattered.

“My experience has been bad because I lost my mom while I was serving, and I was spending so much. Transport from my house to my POP. At least, the state should provide the allowance for our house fare. I don’t understand why they don’t want to pay us. They are paying people that are close to them. That is our annoyance. My place is far, I am in Port Harcourt. They promised us that they will pay us after service,” she said.

Prince added that he worked diligently at his place of posting. According to him, he did his part as a corper, and he expects the Delta State government to also do their part by paying him and his colleagues their allowances.

“I actually served in a school, and the school that I served, you need to give in your best. Some people moved from far places to come to the state and have spent lots of money. Looking at the stress all of us go through, we should have been paid,” Prince said.

Ayomide also shared her frustration as she stated that they spent time and money doing their biometrics in order to access their funds, but the state government has still paid them no mind.

“When we resumed, we started the clearance but they said we should go for our biometrics. The money we spent on transport to serve was a lot. They didn’t heed to our call,” She said.

James capitalized the power of social media by bringing his colleague corpers who have also not received their allowances to make their grievances known by using the hashtag #PayDT20AourStateAllawee

“Before we even left, I spoke to our state coordinator and they said they will pay us so we should be patient. Till now, we still haven’t received payment. So, I gathered my colleagues and said let’s use Twitter to draw their attention to our problem.”

Chindinma and her colleagues are not the first batch of NYSC members who have had their allowances delayed or not paid at all, as the same sentiments were shared by other former NYSC members in the state back in 2013.

MyNigeria wrote a letter to the Delta State Government and the NYSC on Friday, April 23 but has still not gotten a response from the authorities.

Watch the Zoom interview below: