The National Youth Service Corps, on Tuesday, broke its silence on a corps member, who made a marriage proposal to a female soldier, saying the Nigerian Army would not allow any violation of military traditions.

The NYSC was reacting to the detention of the female soldier, who got romantically entangled with a male corps member at the orientation camp in Yikpata, Kwara State.

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The Director-General, NYSC, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, who said this during a press briefing in Abuja, explained that the Army was a strong institution founded on discipline.

According to him, corps members have to respect and abide by the customs and traditions of the military in the pursuit of their interests with members of the armed forces.

Ibrahim said although the NYSC encouraged corps members to seek national unity and integration through inter-tribal marriages, caution should not be thrown to the wind.

He stated, “Every organisation has its own customs and traditions, and we have to abide by such. We, on our part, have spoken to our corps members.

“We encourage them to inter-marry, but we have never had a situation where a corps member will go and propose to a soldier.

The Army has its own tradition and it will not joke with it. So, we always tell our corps members to play by the rules.

I can assure that the Army as an institution is built on its customs and traditions, and anything that will impinge on discipline, it will not take it lightly.”

Meanwhile, the Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency has commended the House of Representatives over the bill on the NYSC Trust Fund, which recently scaled first reading.

The Executive Secretary, CESJET, Isaac Ikpa, told journalists that the lawmakers, led by Akinfolarin Mayowa, displayed courage and proved that the Trust Fund would potentially tackle unemployment and enhance youth entrepreneurship.

Among other things, he said the NYSC Trust Fund was expected to provide sustainable source of funds for the agency, skill acquisition training and provision of start-up capital for corps members, and also train and retrain the personnel of the NYSC.

Ikpa also said it would also develop camps and NYSC formations, provide facilities therein, improve the general welfare of corps members and personnel of the scheme, and enhance their preparedness to effectively discharge their statutory duties of promoting national unity, integration, self-reliance and accelerated development of the national economy.