Post-election violence: A’Ibom evacuates 83 corps members from Bauchi

Sun News

25 April 2011

Post-election violence: A’Ibom evacuates 83 corps members from Bauchi

Akwa Ibom State government has evacuated more than 83 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members from Akwa Ibom State serving in different locations in Bauchi State. The corps members were airlifted home in a chartered aircraft on Saturday through the Gombe Airport at the expense of the state government.

Governor. Godswill Akpabio who disclosed at the weekend during a press conference at the Government House, said the corps members had stayed for days at an undisclosed army barracks in Bauchi following last week’s post-election violence, which broke out in some northern states during many lives were lost and property worth millions of naira destroyed.

He said the state government responded to numerous distress calls from the corps members and their families to avert being caught in a cross fire. “We acceded to numerous requests and pleas of worried and agitated parents across the state whose sons and daughters were trapped in the troubled area of Bauchi following the post-election violence by acting promptly and hiring an aircraft to save them.

“Many of the youths corpers took refuge at an army barrack in Bauchi while some hid in the bush and could not even be located but through the assistance of the Director of the State Security Service (SSS), we were able to locate them and considering the hazard of transporting them home by road, I had to charter an aircraft to bring them home safely,” Akpabio stated.