Disappearance of NYSC member throws family into confusion

Over a month after a member of the National Youth Service Corps, Sorunke Lukman Olayiwola, got missing, his family and friends have lamented alleged nonchalance on the part of NYSC authorities and security agencies.

Sorounke is a 2015 Batch B Stream 1 corps member serving in Zamfara State, who ought to have passed out on Thursday.

According to report by the family, he got missing on September 20, while travelling back to Zamfara from his home town, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

In an interview with The Punch on Monday, Sorunke’s sister, Olaide Sorunke, noted that their parents had visited several police stations in Ibadan, Abeokuta and Ogbomoso areas, as he was said to have planned to board a bus to Zamfara from the area.

She said that none of the police units had any useful information on her brother’s whereabouts, nor did any make any sustained effort to search for him.

Olaide added, “We informed the NYSC authorities but they said my brother, Lukman, was not with them. Since that time, nobody really contacted us or made any concrete efforts to locate him. My father, my mum and all of us are sad that Lukman got missing in the course of serving his fatherland and the government is not really helping us to bring him back.”

Sorunke’s co-youth corps members in Zamfara, especially those in Anka Local Government Area where he was serving, have continually agitated for his recovery.

They have mounted campaigns, especially on social media, while they also regularly put pressure on the NYSC.

They argued that the NYSC, security agencies and the government had not paid enough attention to his disappearance because his parents were not influential.

One of them, who spoke on the condition of anonymity on Monday, said all efforts they had made to stir up the NYSC into action had proved abortive.