By John Oba
Abuja
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has nominated 140 corps members for the 2016 President Honours Award for screening exercise.
Speaking at the inauguration of the National Selection Committee in Abuja, the Director General of the Scheme, Brig-General Sulaiman Kazaure, said any corps member, who requested for relocation, concessional deployment, served in their state of origin, utilised personal or family funds to execute the projects, were disqualified from the process.
He explained that the award was instituted in 1974 as a means of rewarding corps members, who offered exemplary service to the nation during their service year.
He told the committee that “you will be saddled with the onerous task of selecting award winners from the 2014 Batch ‘C’ and 2015 batch ‘A’ nominees.”
Kazaure, therefore, urged the committee to ensure fairness and justice in the selection process by adhering to the criteria meant for the process.
“I am confident that your experience as administrators with proven track record of integrity will be brought to bear on this challenging task,” he said.
The Director, Corps Welfare and Inspection, Mrs. Victoria Okakwu, said that the scheme had painstakingly prepared brief on every nominee and gone further to verify claims for the state and federal secretariats.
She said the department had carried out an on-the-spot assessment of the projects executed by the nominees to forestall novelties and frivolities.
In his remarks, Chairman of the committee, Dr Kelvin Ihenetu assured of the committee’s commitment to handle the task with all sense of diligence and objectivity.