Corps Members Mourn Slain Colleague, Protest Alleged Government Insensitivity

By Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa

The body of Mr. James Onuh, a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), who was shot by suspected armed robbers in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, last week, has been  taken to his hometown in Benue State for burial.

 However, many of the corps members who thronged the Federal Medical Centre mortuary in the state capital, during the event, decried the absence of government officials during the evacuation of Onuh’s body.

But the representatives of the police and the state Coordinator, NYSC, Mr. Anthony Ekeocha and his team attended the brief ceremony, where they appealed to the corps members to be security conscious.

The grieving corps members however, were said to have staged a protest against the attitude of the state government which they said did not show concern throughout the period.

Onuh was killed on June 2 by gunmen who attacked and robbed him of his mobile handset and cash at Obele, a suburb of Yenagoa, the capital city.

The bandits reportedly fled the area after killing Onuh, a graduate of the Federal University of Agriculture in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, who was attached to the Bayelsa State Ministry of Works for his primary assignment.

 Onuh, the only child of his parents, was a Batch B corps member who was expecting his passing out in September before the incident occurred.

A corps member who attended the solemn event said the corps members blocked the road leading to the Government House as a form of protest. 

But following the anger of the corps members, the Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah (rtd) and some government functionaries reportedly met with them at the Peace Park.

The government apologised to the corps members and assured the youths of their protection, adding that the government was very