Gombe – The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have dismissed as false reports circulating on social media alleging that prospective corps members deployed to Gombe State were involved in a fatal road crash.
The viral post claimed that a bus conveying prospective corps members to the NYSC orientation camp in Gombe was involved in an accident that reportedly claimed 16 lives, while two others allegedly sustained critical injuries and were rushed to an unnamed hospital.
However, investigations conducted by our correspondent revealed that the story was unfounded and aimed at causing panic.
Confirming the development, the FRSC Public Relations Officer, Janet Kassa, stated that there was no record of such an incident within the state. According to her, repeated checks and calls to various FRSC commands and units yielded no evidence of any crash involving prospective corps members.
“I have checked with my colleagues and there is no indication that this incident happened in Gombe. Calls across units and commands did not confirm such a report. This appears to be one of those social media posts aimed at generating comments and views,” Kassa said.
She further assured that the public would be promptly informed if any verifiable information emerged, adding that for now, the report should be completely disregarded.
Similarly, the Public Relations Officer of the Gombe State Police Command, DSP Buhari Abdullahi, also refuted the claim, noting that the command had no record of any crash of such magnitude within the state.
“We are still monitoring the situation, but from morning till now, there has been no evidence to support the reports being circulated. There was also no clear information on the hospital where the injured were taken or any specific location of the alleged crash,” Abdullahi stated.
The NYSC Public Relations Officer in Gombe, Jennifer Laha, equally expressed doubts about the authenticity of the circulating images, describing them as suspicious and possibly generated by artificial intelligence.
“From what I saw in the pictures, there were clear signs of manipulation, including misspellings. Also, NYSC does not provide buses for prospective corps members to convey them to orientation camps,” she said, adding that the scheme’s headquarters was yet to issue any official statement on the matter.
Meanwhile, the NYSC orientation camp in Gombe has since opened, with prospective corps members expected to be officially sworn in on Friday,
