A human rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern, has urged the National Youth Service Corps to postpone its ‘Batch A’ orientation camp exercise due to the outbreak of coronavirus in Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Director of the group, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, on Wednesday.

The group said, “Authorities of the NYSC on Sunday, March 8, told prospective youth corp members not to panic over coronavirus outbreak.

“According to NYSC, certain preventive measures have been put in place to prevent any outbreak of the virus in its 37 orientation camps nationwide.

“But we express doubts over the wisdom behind the resolve of the NYSC to carry on with the orientation exercise in the face of worldwide outbreaks.

“While we agree that the outbreak is not the fault of NYSC officials, we insist that the planning of the orientation camps should take into cognisance the reality on ground.

“To be on the safe side, the exercise should be postponed by one or two months.

“We are talking of 350,000 skilled Nigerians. These are our children. They are the hope of this country. We should not put their lives at risk.

“Events are being postponed across the world. Saudi Arabia, a highly conservative country, saw the wisdom in halting its annual Umrah (lesser pilgrimage).”

The group said available records showed that coronavirus which originated in Wuhan, China, had killed more than 4,000 people and infected over 116,000 people across the world