Some National Youth Service Corps members serving in Oyo State on Tuesday appealed to the state government to pay nine months’ arrears of state allowances owed them by the state government, .
The members made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ibadan.
NAN reports that the state government, headed by Governor Abiola Ajimobi, had promised to be paying the sum of N4,000 monthly to corps members serving with the state government sector.
A 2015/16 Batch B Corps Member, Miracle Onyekponwanne, said she had not received any amount at all since the inception of her service in October 2015.
Onyekponwanne said: “People like us teaching in schools do not even have accommodation and it is supposed to be the responsibility of the school and government to provide it.
“So, we have to accommodate ourselves and it has not been easy.
“With the situation of things in the country now, the normal N19,800 the Federal Government is giving us is not even enough.
“We have to transport ourselves and do other things.
“We will pass out in October, yet we have not received anything.
“The government should please pay us everything at once or even twice before we pass out.
“The money is a peanut to them.”
Also, Oyinkansola Omotesho, of Batch B, lamented: “I have not received anything at all since I started serving.
“It is better they tell us that they will not pay the allowance so that we remove our mind from it.
“We would have calculated what to use the money for but our hope are being dashed out.
“They should please be checking how they pay on the payroll because only few people received once but those of us teaching in my school has not received anything at all since 2015.”
Similarly, another Batch B member, Meshach Omaji, said he only received two months allowance since October 2015, adding that other batches had not received any at all.
Omaji said: “Since I started serving in November 2015, I have only received twice.
“The first one was meant for December, 2015 but the second one was not stated, so I assumed it was for January 2016.
“I have not received any other one since then.
“Maybe I received those ones because I am serving with the state NYSC editorial department.
“Most of my colleagues have not received any since 2015.”
Another Corps member in a secondary school in Saki, who preferred anonymity, said the state government had only paid the December and January allowances.
Omaji, however, pleaded with the government to pay the remaining allowance.
He said: “The money should be for accommodation but when we did not receive it, we had to source for it from parents and relations.
“These are people we should even be giving money; no matter how little, rather than them giving us.”
NAN reports that efforts made to reach the Special Adviser to the Governor on Communication and Strategy, Yomi Olayinka, failed.
NAN.