Seadogs advise govts to name streets after slain Corps members

Seadogs advise govts to name streets after slain Corps members
By Chris Oji, Enugu 21/06/2011


The National Association of Seadogs International yesterday called for a law mandating each state government to provide security for Corps members serving in their states.
It also demanded that major streets where NYSC members died be named after them.
The association’s Zone-E chapter, which marched on major streets of Enugu, the Enugu State capital, to honour the fallen heroes at the weekend, rejected the call for the scrapping of the scheme. They urged the Federal Government to guarantee the life and safety of every Nigerian on national youth service.
The Seadogs advised the government to strengthen the scheme as a veritable instrument for national unity, providing for life insurance covering the period of service, insurance against theft or destruction of property, as well as accidents occasioning injury.
The association, popularly known as Pyrates Confraternity, urged the newly elected political office holders to always be reminded of the innocent blood that was spilled for their sake and to act at all times in the best interest of the country.
In a statement read at the end of the march at the Okpara Square, by the Capone, Mr. Mbachu Uzochukwu, an engineer, the Seadogs resolved: "Never again shall we sit and watch whilst any member of the NYSC is assaulted, kidnapped or murdered in the performance of his/her national service.
"It behoves on all of us to protect our Corps members and not kill them; we hereby sound resolute that the perpetrators of these acts of cowardice be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
The association recalled that soon after the civil war that witnessed terrible destructions of life and property, the NYSC was inaugurated to foster the spirit of unity in Nigeria, "but here we are mourning the gruesome murder of members of the programme."
"These young men and women in whose honour we gathered here were patriotic Nigerians who like their colleagues before them answered a national call to duty, only for their lives to be cut short in a most wicked manner and in the prime of the lives.
"In the hours preceding their deaths, these young men and women sought for safety that did not come; they were failed by the federal government, they were failed by the governor of the states in which they were killed; they were failed by the country they served in truth; they were failed by all of us.’
"The travails suffered by NYSC members should not be swept under the carpet; the female corps allegedly raped by an Oba; the female member brutally raped and murdered in Borno; the five corps members recently kidnapped; the apathy towards the welfare of corps member should agitate our minds and spur us towards a resolution to stand for our tomorrow."