Thousands of unemployed youth in Ogun on Thursday struggled to get the registration form of the Peace Corps of Nigeria at Asero Housing Estate, Abeokuta.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bill to establish the Nigerian Peace Corps is awaiting the Presidential assent.
The exercise which was being carried out by the command to screen intending cadets on medical, fitness, mental alertness, educational standard among others was led by the Commandant of the Corps, Patriot Olalekan Yusuff.
The screening was a preliminary exercise before the one month intensive training of the corps, which would qualify the successful cadets to be officers of the Peace Corps of Nigeria.
Addressing the applicants, Yusuff said the corps was a dignify profession and would not recruit anybody with criminal records.
He also admonished those who were screened out based on health reasons and pregnancy not to see the corps as being discriminatory but to commend it for being safety conscious.
He noted that the one month intensive training contains rigorous exercise and those who were not medically fit may not be able to cope.
“We are peace loving body and we shall continue to promote and maintain peace.
“For those of you that we screened out based on health conditions and pregnancy, I want you to understand that we value your life more than anything else and we cannot allow you to partake in the training,’’ he said.
Expressing her appreciation to the leadership of the corps, a pregnant lady, who pleaded anonymity, thanked the leadership of the corps in the state for telling them about the strenuous nature of the exercise.
She noted that she had been looking onto the Lord for the pregnancy for close to five years and could not afford to lose it.
She commended the peaceful conduct of the officers for educating them ahead of the one month intensive training and advised those who had poor health condition to withdraw.
She, however, called on the Federal and State Governments to do more in terms of job creation for the youths in the country in order to reduce their suffering. (NAN)