The National Youth Service Corps has mobilised about 2.7 million members since its inception 41 years ago, its Director-General, Brig. Gen. Johnson Olawumi, said on Tuesday.

He also stated that about 79 persons involved in the illegal NYSC orientation camp in Keffi, Nasarawa State had been sent to prison.

According to him, the NYSC is contemplating having a meeting with the National Income, Salaries and Wages Commission to peg the allowances of corps members to ensure that they benefit anytime there is an upward review in the salaries of civil servants in the country.

In an interactive session with some journalists in Abuja, Olawumi who was flanked by the senior management team of the NYSC, also said that corps members who produced fake medical reports to influence their posting would be compelled to do manual labour to serve as a deterrent to others.

He also described as unfortunate comments credited to a former governor of Osun State and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke, that the Peoples Democratic Party had perfected plans to use the NYSC members to rig the forthcoming governorship election in the state scheduled for August 9.

Olawumi said, “As of today, the NYSC has mobilised approximately 2.7 million corps members since inception 41 years ago. This number keeps on increasing because of the increase in the number of tertiary institutions and universities.”

Speaking on the allegation by Adeleke, the NYSC DG said it was disappointing that such an allegation was coming from a senior citizen who was also an ex-governor of Osun State.

“We don’t just deploy corps members for election duties, they are just performing a minute role. Isiaka Adeleke’s allegation is very unfortunate. It is very unfortunate that such a statement is coming from a senior citizen. Allegations like this are not strange during elections, after all PDP has also accused the NYSC of planning to favour the APC in the same Osun governorship election. But we have received commendation from the observers that monitored the Ekiti governorship election,” he stated.

Olawumi also stressed that the NYSC had made it mandatory to ensure that before their deployment as ad hoc staff in any election duty, corps members would receive a large percentage of their allowances to avoid being influenced by desperate politicians.