Female corps member dies in Bayelsa camp

A female member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), simply identified as Jumoke, has died at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Kaiama, Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

It was gathered that the 2016 Batch B Stream II corps member died of asthmatic attack last Friday.

The deceased undergoing the compulsory orientation, a core programme of the scheme, breathed her last at the Clinic Department of the camp.

Though her colleague said the deceased corps member came to camp with her inhaler to ward off crisis, it was not certain what became of the inhaler when her attack started.

A source, who spoke in confidence, however said the victim suffered her first attack a week after arrival at the camp but was assisted by colleagues.

"My friend told me that when the deceased suffered her first attack in camp, she helped her to overcome it.

“But we don't know what happened when a similar attack that took her life happened," she said.

Some persons also claimed that the deceased was both asthmatic and epileptic saying she was not fit to be at the camp.

Her remains were said to have been deposited at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa.

The Director-General, NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Sule Kauzure, was said to have dispatched a delegation of senior NYSC officials from the headquarters in Abuja to Kaiama.

The officials, it was gathered, arrived on Friday evening and immediately commenced investigations to ascertain the circumstances that led to the death of the corps member.

NYSC officials in Bayelsa State however kept mute over the development saying the headquarters had taken over the matter.

Last year, a female corps member became sick at the camp but later died at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa.

The latest incident occurred few days after Kauzure, who was represented by the NYSC Director, Procurement, Mr. Yakubu Jok, visited the Kaiama camp.

The D-G advised youths absorbed in the scheme to take their personal security seriously.

Kauzure lamented that corps members were increasingly exposing themselves to danger by embarking on unauthorised night journeys, regretting that some corps members lost their lives with others sustaining grave bodily injuries because of indiscipline.

He appealed to them to always stay at the places they were posted to carry out their one year national assignments.

Kauzure also urged the youths to embrace patriotism and discipline, adding that the scheme was designed to inculcate values of citizenship and leadership in them.