Some National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) members in Auyo local government of Jigawa State have lamented the non-payment of their monthly allowances for January.
The corps members from 2024 Batch A streams 1 and 2 alleged that the local government inspection officer (LGI) Lawan Usman did not upload their monthly biometric clearance for no fault of theirs.
One of the victims, Aliyu Sabiu, whose allowance was not paid despite completing his service a few weeks ago, said they had done their biometric capture, but the LGI deliberately failed to upload it to the NYSC portal.
He told WikkiTimes that there are about 30 corps members who passed out last month and were left unpaid despite completing their service year.
“I reached out to the LGI severally and even the Zonal Inspection officer but none of them responded to my messages,” he said.
A serving corps member who did not wish to be mentioned for fear of victimization confirmed that the LGI was responsible for the non-payment because he failed to upload their biometric capture on time at the NYSC portal.
He said: “On the 4th of January, we went to the zonal office and did our clearance online but days later, we were called to do it manually again because the LGI did not upload our details on time and then his computer crashed afterward which led to the inability to upload our monthly clearance on the NYSC portal.
“Our dashboards reflected that because it was showing ‘absent’, meaning our clearance was not captured. But even after doing the manual clearance, we still haven’t received any payment and the LGI has been giving us empty promises since then.”
The corps member expressed frustration, saying the lack of payment has affected their livelihood and left many stranded in their national assignment.
“All of us left home to serve here. We fend for ourselves and it is difficult in this economy. Imagine having to manage N33,000 in Nigeria today. It is not even enough to cover feeding expenses. We are stranded at the moment. One man’s mistake shouldn’t cost us this much and he is not even doing anything about it,” he added.
Mubarak Ismail, another ex-corps member lamented that they expected to receive their payment on 22nd January since they were to pass out the following day but were told that the payment would be delayed until month’s end. Yet, nothing has been done.
In an interview with WikkiTimes, the LGI, Lawan Usman confirmed the non-payment of the allowance but clarified that the NYSC office is working to ensure that everyone is settled. “The problem happened unknowingly during our biometric exercise because our system had a defect,” he said.
“I have been working tirelessly to make sure everyone gets his pending allowance from the management,” he added.
Similarly, the NYSC state accountant, Makwan Bitrus Akos told this medium in a phone interview that the issue would be resolved soon.
Efforts to contact the state Zonal Inspector Mustapha Boyi and the State Coordinator, Dawut Jidda proved futile as calls and text messages put across were not responded to as of the time of filing this report.
 Lawan Usman did not upload their monthly biometric clearance for no fault of theirs. ){kind=link}