Essien Udim Corps members cry for help ...say our L.I is heartless, victimizing us

Corps members serving in Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State have accused the Local Government Inspector Mr. Akren Lawrence of high handedness and a calculated attempt to frustrate corps members who refuse to dance to his whims and caprices.

Mr. Akren who NYSC members say is supposed to play a fatherly role for the Corps members is said to be administering undue punishment to serving corps members as he pleases; he is also said to be abusing corps members at different instances including married women.

He is alleged to be a reckless in behavior even during official hours.

Corps members who spoke to our reporter on grounds of anonymity stressed that some acts exhibited by Akren and the different dramas he acts during CDS and clearance exercises are acts too unethical to be printed.

They also maintained that the man is a bad influence to fresh graduates.

One of the corps member said “service is important in building the corps members, their safety and lives are more important. However, Akren administers punishments that warrant movement to distant places which exposes corps members to accident and the likes. Can you imagine that the man even when he knows some of us are married women will still ask us out and just because some turned down his advances, he starts behaving funny and even calls us prostitutes”, a source laments.

She continued, “This man is so full of himself that he would ask us to report to anybody and that nothing will happen”.

It was reliably gathered by sources close to the NYSC officer that in recent times, the L.I has engaged in reposting corps members who are originally posted to their PPAs by NYSC to other Places of Primary Assignments due to some personal issues he has with the Principal of the schools.

A case in point is the 2018 Batch A’s Corps members posted to Independence High School Ukana where he reposted all of them boasting that the Principal failed to recognize his office thereby causing untold hardship to the affected corps members. This act, corps members say is an aberration and a show of an individual who think he is above NYSC.  

Some female Corps Members who has been suffering in silence expressed displeasure for their service year because the LGI has been on their neck to go down with them. In their refusal or attempt to resist him, they remain in perpetual problems with him while male corps members who cannot satisfy his appetite for settlement is having a running battle with him.

The corps members and other community members appeal to the State Coordinator of NYSC, Mr. Amusan Oluwale to call Mr. Akren Lawrence to order with the view to safeguarding the ideals and vision of NYSC.

They emphasized that Mr. Akren has been boasting that the State Coordinator is his boss and can do nothing to him and challenged corps members to report him to the state coordinator and see if anything will happen.

But Akren Lawrence while responding to the allegations raised by the NYSC members in Essien Udim say, he is not involve in any of the accusations whatsoever. The Essien Udim L.I stated further that he does not have and cannot ever ask a Corp member out because he seeks to maintain his respect and integrity saying that those who accuse him of doing such things are only being mischievous.

Mr. Akren Lawrence while speaking on phone to our reporter in the later part of yesterday said, he is running the Affairs of NYSC with the laid down rules and regulations and that he cannot in anyway breach the rules of the NYSC which he is called to serve.

Akren however added that any Corp member who says he has ever asked her out whether single or married should come to the public and face him.

He further maintained that he instills discipline in the NYSC and has always does not fail to issue queries to erring Corp members who do not conform to the rules, regulations and dictates of the Service.

He added that he has taste and class and therefore cannot be running after NYSC girls both married and unmarried.

A caller who identified himself as the SSS officer  for Essien Udim while speaking with THE INK reporter on phone early last night said, the newspaper was trying to blackmail the  NYSC man. When asked if he is speaking as a spokesman to the Essien Udim NYSC L.I, the SSS mn said, the Essien Udim NYSC man is a public office holder and however ordered THE INK Editor to meet him in his office in Essien Udim, Tuesday by ten in the morning

More details as the investigation continues