Glory Ebomah
A Community Development Service, CDS, group of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, has erected and unveiled a billboard to support the anti-corruption campaign of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The billboard, erected at the busy Opolo market junction, Yenogoa, Bayelsa State, was initiated and constructed by corps members in the NYSC’s EFCC/ICPC CDS Group.
The out-going President of the CDS group, Busayo Adepoju said that her group embarked on the project to educate the masses in Bayelsa on the need to shun corruption and offer the public correct interpretation of the mandates of the EFCC and ICPC. “Erecting the billboard is to create awareness for the people. The billboard glows at night and will help us relate the anti-corruption message more”, she said.
Several messages are printed on the billboard. Some of them are: “Say No to any form of bribery and corruption”, “See something, say something”, “Nigerian Youths Reject Corruption”, among others.
At a brief ceremony to unveil the billboard in Yenogoa on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, Port Harcourt’s Zonal Commander of the EFCC, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE Nwanneka Nwokike, commended the initiative of the CDS group and called on other corps members to emulate the gesture.
He explained that the billboard would complement the sensitization efforts of the EFCC. “The erection of the signpost was designed as one of the means of sensitization which is a strategy to complement the already existing channels of educating Nigerians against corruption”, he said.
Nwokike, who spoke through the Head, Public Affairs Department, Port Harcourt’s Zonal Command, Akpos Mezeh-Ekisowei, says that the EFCC is committed to the fight against corruption and charged youths across the country to embrace the anti-corruption campaigns more vigorously. “The EFCC is excited that the youth have decided to take the bull by the horn”, she said.
Representative of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Mrs Juliet Ase, urged the corps members not to stop at what they have done but continue to preach against corruption “it won’t be a bad idea if we have a signpost which says “Stop Corruption” at every Junction in Yenagoa”, she said.