.'75 ex-corpers abandoned certificates for N16m loans'
Three graduates of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State, have died in a fatal accident while travelling to Katsina State to participate in the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps scheme.
The incident took place at Mokwa, Niger State, on Thursday when an articulated vehicle ran over an 18-passenger Toyota bus in which the victims were travelling in.
An eyewitness said the bus made a stopover at Mokwa for the passengers to eat, after which they continued their journey.
"The bus was about to link the Jebba/Mokwa Expressway when an oncoming articulated vehicle ran over it and killed all the passengers except the driver," the eyewitness said.
One of the deceased, Fakayode Oluwatoyin, was a Mass Communication graduate.
Confirming the incident, the institution's spokesperson, Mr Olayinka Iroye, said, "Two of them hailed from Iwo in Osun State, but I am not sure of where the third hailed from."
He added that their parents had been notified of the incident.
Meanwhile, the National Youth Service Corps Foundation has said it is currently searching for about 75 ex-corps members who fled with about N16m business loans given to them, after using their discharge certificates as collateral.
The NYSC Foundation noted that it may be forced to contact the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to recover the N16m loans which the former corps members had failed to repay for several years.
The NYSC Foundation Chief Executive Officer, Mr Bako Ventim, stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Friday, during a soft loan disbursement programme at the NYSC Headquarters.
He added that the discharge certificates of the 75 defaulting ex-corps members were with the foundation and would soon be published in the national dailies except they paid.
He noted that the inability of the fleeing corps members to repay the loans had hindered more ex-corps members from benefiting in the financial empowerment.
Ventim said, “There are some of these former corps members who benefitted from the loans and have not repaid them. We have their NYSC certificates with us and at some point; we were wondering whether those certificates were fake. We had to link up with the certificates department which confirmed to us that the certificates were genuine. We have their certificates; they have our money.
"We have a lot of defaulters. Please come and repay the loans before we get Ibrahim Magu (EFCC acting Chairman) to help us recover the loans.
"It is an unfortunate development that some former corps members benefited from this loan scheme but have neglected the repayment of the loans.
"But we don't want to get to this point because they were corps members; yet we are looking forward to that. We have over N16m out there in loans."
The NYSC Director-General, Brig Gen Shuaibu Ibrahim, urged the new beneficiaries of the loans to ensure "timely repayment to enable others to benefit in future."
