Jonathan compensates slain corpers’ families •Offers automatic employment to wounded NYSC members •Vows to bring culprits to book …

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has announced a cash compensation of N5 million for each of the families of the 10 slain members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and has also directed them to forward the name

of one unemployed sibling of the deceased for immediate employment in the Federal Civil Service.

Speaking in a solemn ceremony, where he met the families in the Aso Chambers of the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, he said the corps members, killed in Bauchi State in the aftermath of the announcement of the outcome of the last presidential election, would not die in vain and vowed that those involved in their killing would be brought to book.

Jonathan, who will today inaugurate the 20-man Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the pre-election and post-election violence, observed that the death of the NYSC members was more painful, coming while they were on an important national assignment.

According to the president, “My heart, and indeed the hearts of all Nigerians go out to you all, as you reconcile yourselves to the reality of the shock and the pain of losing vibrant young men and women of great promise and hopes of a fulfilling future ahead of them.  We all share in your grief.

“This tragedy is even more sobering, considering that they died carrying out a national assignment that has served to effectively consolidate our democratic process.  The success of the 2011 elections and the wide international acclaim which the exercise has received was due in large part to the uncommon patriotism and diligence exhibited by the members of the National Youth Service Corps,” he said.

The president noted that though they were dead, “they have not died in vain,” telling the families that, “you can take some solace in the fact that they are today national heroes of whom every patriotic Nigerian is immensely proud.  Our administration holds them in the highest esteem and we are determined to ensure that their names are permanently immortalised as an enduring source of inspiration to us all.”

On the monetary compensation, he said: “I appreciate the fact that no amount of recognition can adequately compensate for the deep void that their passing has created in your individual family.  However, in demonstration of our gratitude for the supreme sacrifice that they have paid in the service of Nigeria, I have decided that each of the 10 families of these gallant young men and women will receive a token monetary compensation of N5 million.”

Jonathan directed the families to proceed to the NYSC national headquarters immediately to collect the money, as he had already directed the Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier Maharazu Tsiga, to make the payment.

He further stated: “With regard to those who suffered varying degrees of injuries, additional to my earlier directive that the state governments take charge of their medical bills, the Federal Government hereby guarantees each of them automatic employment on completion of their national service.”

Meanwhile, the presidency has condemned the attempt by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to justify the killing of the corps members.

The CPC had said through its legal adviser, Abubakar Malami, that what happened in parts of the country, following the presidential elections, was a reaction to a determination by President Goodluck Jonathan to win “the elections by any means.”

But according to a presidency statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ima Niboro, on Tuesday in Abuja, “This attempt by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to justify the unfortunate carnage and bloodletting is vexatious in the extreme. It amounts to rubbing salt on the raw wounds of families who lost dear ones, and those who were maimed and lost valuable property to the carnage.”

It stated that “It also amounts to an open admission that the party’s supporters were, indeed, behind the violence and that the party may well have planned it all.

“Malami went ahead to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by drawing rather disingenuous parallels between these obviously orchestrated riots and the Western region crisis of the First Republic.”

He said “we recall the anger of of the people of the Western region in 1965 and the people of Ondo State in 1983 against the use of federal might to dislodge opposition governments in the South-West in favour of the ruling parties at the federal level with concocted results.”

The statement added that “what Malami failed to explain to Nigerians was why these riots and killings happened largely in areas where the CPC won and Jonathan lost.

“He also failed to state that the pattern of voting during the presidential elections in those areas practically replicated the National Assembly elections. But while the CPC hailed the one as free, fair and transparent, it has condemned the other as fraudulent and rigged.”

The presidency said, however, that it was on record that the election results were collated peacefully at polling unit, ward, local government and state levels without incident in those areas, adding that it was at the level of national collation when it became obvious that the CPC had lost that all hell broke loose.

“Obviously therefore, the riots couldn’t have been as a result of the conduct of the presidential elections in those areas where the bulk of the killings took place. It is thus extremely shocking that a political party, rather than condemn the killings, justifies them and, worse still, with examples that just don’t fit. 

“These blood cuddling murders, even of our innocent youth corpers that CPC today tried to justify, are even more disturbing, because President Jona-than provided a level playing field for a free and fair democratic contest.

“This has been acknowledged by the world at large. This was acknowledged by the leadership of the CPC, even in the run up to the elections.

“It is, therefore, hard to imagine what purpose these carefully choreographed riots were meant to achieve beyond an attack on those who were believed to have voted against the CPC candidate and the youth corps members, who were ‘guilty’ of supervising the process.

“This can only be the reason why even All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) stalwarts like Alhaji Bashir Tofa were attacked and his home and cars razed. Even the Kano Local Government revenue office was torched, yet that is an ANPP administration.

“Neither did the rioters spare our revered traditional rulers, as they attempted to burn down the palaces of emirs they believed did not support their candidate openly enough.

“The CPC”s justification of murder and arson must be condemned by all. It is wicked, callous and insensitive. Nigeria is a democracy and a country of laws. It is not a jungle ruled by whim and caprice. Nigeria is not CPC’s boot camp,” the statement said.