The National Youth Service Corps has established a control room at its headquarters and set up an election security committee to monitor activities of Corps Members on electoral duty and ensure their safety.

The Director General of NYSC, Brigadier General Johnson Olawumi, stated this in Abuja during a visit of a delegation of the European Union Election Observation Mission to the NYSC Headquarters.
General Olawumi said the scheme had also engaged community leaders as part of measures to prevent the 2011 negative experience where ten Corps Members lost their lives in a post elections violence.

He listed other strategies put in place to ensure that Corps Members maintain neutrality during the polls.

Earlier, the Deputy Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observer Mission, Ms Hannah Roberts, said they were at the NYSC due to the strategic role played by the scheme in the country’s electoral process.

Ms Roberts explained that members of the team were spread across the country to observe the forth-coming elections.

She noted that the group usually produces preliminary statement two days after each election and final report months later.