Volunteer members of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) in Adamawa State staged a protest in the state capital, Yola, on Thursday, demanding to be absorbed as regular employees of the corps and given all entitlements.
The volunteers, all dressed in NSCDC uniform, marched through major streets bearing placards, some of which read: ‘Give us our appointment letters and allowances,’ ‘We need our allowances,’ ‘Give us our entitlements,’ ‘We insist on our right.’
The NSCDC volunteers who addressed newsmen in the course of their protest at the Ahmadu Ribadu Square in Jimeta, said not only were the 631 volunteer NSCDC members in the state’s 21 LGAs not being paid regular salaries, even allowances due to them were usually swallowed up in corruption.
The Chairman of the Adamawa Command of the NSCDC Volunteers, Livingstone Mohammed, who responded to questions from newsmen at the Ahmadu Ribadu Square, said that following complaints and a concession by the NSCDC high headquarters, the headquarters was giving his members N30,000 every three months around the year 2008, but that it was stopped after three payments.
“They closed the N30,000 because we did clearance and they said they had captured us and we had become bonafide staff, but we don’t see appointment letters. We are not getting the N30,000 and we have not got the appointment letters,” Livingstone said.
According to him, “The worst thing is that the Commandant General announced (towards the 2019 election) that he had 30,000 volunteers, that he would use them for the election, and he used us. They asked for our account numbers, of which we complied. We have never seen even N10 from there. We are angry.”
He said many of his members had died and the wives and children they left behind are suffering.
He added, “When we complain of having not been absorbed (into the regular NSCDC system), they would say we should apply. They want to treat us as they treat any other fresh applicants. How can we fit in when we have grown old serving as volunteers in this same system?”
When contacted, the Adamawa State Commandant of the NSCDC, Abdullahi Nurudeen, said the command has no volunteers, and that Nigerians wishing to be recruited into the NSCDC could apply as recruitment process is currently on.
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