Ex-Corps Member Demands N260m From NYSC

Boboye Olaribigbe

An ex-corps member identified as Boboye Olaribigbe has demanded N260 million from the National Youth Service Corps.

Olaribigbe who is now an accountant said the N260 million is to be paid as the copyright value of a language project he executed for the scheme more than a decade ago.

He accused the National Youth Service Corps of refusing to pay him and threatened to take legal action if the demand was not met.

Speaking further on the project, Olaribigbe said he was granted approval to convert the NYSC Language Handbook into an audio format in 2006.

He said the concept, which he developed after his service year as a corps member in Enugu State, was aimed at solving language problems encountered by corps members in the country.

The 43-year-old noted that he sourced different language experts, who participated in the project, adding that the audio was produced in compact disks and cassettes.

Olaribigbe, who claimed to have got a letter of approval for the project from a former Director-General of the NYSC, Brig. Gen. Yusuf Bomoi, said he successfully executed the project.

“The NYSC is the owner of the language book comprising Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo, but I came up with the idea to put it in audio format so that every corps member can learn the languages on their own,” he told Punch Metro.

Reacting to the allegation raised by Olaribigbe, the Deputy Director of Community Development Service, NYSC, Sunday Oyinke, urged Olaribigbe to be patient.

He said, “He has already contracted a lawyer, who wrote to us. The lawyer has given us a time limit to respond. Let him be patient; this is not the way to go about it.”