A total of 32 corps members who served in Lagos State in the  2020 Batch ‘A’ will have their national service extended or repeated as punitive measures for  misconduct.

The Lagos State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), Eddy Megwa, announced the punishments at the passing out parade  of a total of 5,720 corps members across the state.

According to him, some of the affected corps members were not available when needed, while some absconded outrightly.

He did not specify the number to repeat the national  service or those whose service will be extended.

Meanwhile, Mr. Megwa announced that Oluwatimilehin Adegbite would get a state merit award for exceptional performance.

He said that most of the 2020 Batch ‘A’ corp members behaved well.

The coordinator, who described the batch  as ‘Pandemic Batch’, praised the batch for  resilience.

According to him, corps members in the batch spent only 11 days in camp and  were ordered home by NYSC, following COVID-19 pandemic.

” In spite of that, most of them showed resilience,” he said.

“This 2020 Batch ‘A’ corp members are very unique, they really distinguished themselves individually and as a set. I am highly impressed with their general performance.

” Even when the nation shut down because of coronavirus and we directed them to go home and work virtually, most of them were still eager to work.

“They started producing hand sanitisers, anti-bacterial hand wash, face masks.

“I am proud to say that corps members in Lagos State made visible impacts in all the LGAs,” he said.

Mr. Megwa, who noted that the NYSC was one of the major unifying and enduring institutions in Nigeria, urged the corps members to shun   tribalism and promote unity  and peace.

(NAN)