Mr. Lateef Lamina who lost his youth corps member daughter, Omolabake Temitope Lamina, in a ghastly auto accident has slammed the National Youth Corps Service (NYSC) for being insensitive to his plight.
The deceased(pictured) who was serving in Sokoto State at Rima Television had travelled to Lagos from her station to felicitate with her mother who had returned from Mecca where she went for pilgrimage.
Subsequently she was pressured to return to her base by authority in Rima Television and died on her way to Sokoto after the bus she boarded was involved in an auto crash in Zamfara at 2.00am.
Her elder sister, Kadijat, who is serving in Kebbi State and travelled with NYSC delegate to Lagos with the corpse has remained in Lagos since then grieving with her parents.
But pressure is being mounted on her to return to Kebbi by the NYSC, an action the bereaved father reacted angrily to, fearing her other daughter might die in another auto accident.
He said: “Though, I don’t want to believe that she was killed by anybody, but if they had not mounted pressure on her to return to her duty post, she would (not) have died. How could I have struggled to nurture my children to this point and the government took both of them to that distance? I know that if they were serving here that similar thing could have happened, but it would have been better if it had happened close by than in distant place.
“Another frustration I am having now is that the elder sister who led the NYSC officials to bring my late daughter’s remains home is also being pressured to return to her duty post in Kebbi. With the terrible experience we had with her younger sister, we are scared of allowing her to go back. We are traumatised and filled with awe about allowing her to go back. No parent who had had this kind of distasteful experience would easily allow another child to embark on similar journey. If we allow her to go, we would be stone dead all through the period she would be on the road.
“Instead of understanding or empathising with us, the NYSC officials over there are threatening to penalise her if she fails to return within a stipulated period. I even called him to explain our ordeal to him but he rebuffed me. When she even went to notify one of the top officials that she lost her sister in an accident and would want to go with the vehicle conveying her remains, the man put obstacles in her path even when the bus was ready to leave and just waiting for her to join them. It is sheer callousness and I want to appeal to eminent Nigerians to help me facilitate the redeployment of my first daughter, Kadijat, who is serving with the Ministry of Finance in Kebbi State to a nearby place. There is no way we would have peace of mind if she goes back there. We have not overcome the shock we suffered and wouldn’t want our plight aggravated.”
