Nigerian actress Kate Henshaw has called for the annual National Youths Service Corps program to be shut down for the inability to protect the corps members.

Following news of the abduction of eight corps members in Zamfara State, she took to her Twitter to express her dissatisfaction with the program. According to her, the integrity of the program has been compromised and is no longer a memorable experience as it was in her day. Henshaw noted that travelling is no longer safe for the corps members, and therefore should be scrapped.

The actress recounted her experience traveling to her state of deployment by road and air, emphasising how safe it was during her day. She claimed that the program has consistently put the lives of graduates at risk and ought to be canceled.

Her tweet read, “When I served in the North, it was a very memorable experience. Travelling from Bauchi by road to the airport was safe & then flying to Lagos just with my NYSC ID card, which also got me rebate on my ticket. It’s time to SCRAP this idea since corpers can’t travel within this country without LET OR HINDRANCE! Stop putting the lives of young people at risk with moribund ideas. Security is a priority & needs to be sorted totally, not technically.”

This comes after eight of the victims journeying in an Akwa Ibom Transport Company (AKTC) bus from Uyo, going to Zamfara state for their one-year national service when the incident happened. Three of the corps members are said to have escaped the clutches of the kidnappers.

Eddy Megwa, the Director of Press at the NYSC Headquarters, stated the abducted graduates were travelling at night to their designated orientation camp when they were kidnapped by gunmen. However, Kenshaw still stands on her belief that the program should be scrapped.