by Isi Esene
Brig. Gen. Johnson Olawumi, the Director General of the National Youth Service Corps has told the House of Representatives that the N4,000 fee levied on ‘corpers’ for their call-up letters will remain optional.
Olawumi said this today while speaking at the hearing of a petition on the matter by the House Committee on Public Petitions.
According to him, the fee was strictly for the printing of the letters and not for accessing the online portal of the agency.
The DG explained, “Corps members are supposed to pay more than N4,000 and we want the process to be optional.
“It is an optional thing and the process will remain optional as far as the agreement subsists with Sigma.
“Even if the price crashes to N100, it will continue to remain optional.”
He added that at the close of portal, 124,831 corps members had registered online but only 23,211 paid for the printing of the letters.
Many Nigerians have, however, expressed their opposition to the fee saying that there is no justification for it. Many see it as an avenue to extort youth service members imploring the agency to stop levying the corps members unnecessarily.
What is the concern of the general in this case? I think he has been bribe that made him to respond this way. that 4000 should be abolish or reduced to the bearest minimon for people to be able to pay also remove anything like optional because they no that people will hv no choice than to comply in the near future.