Stakeholders have advocated an effective involvement of youths in tackling security challenges facing Nigeria and Nigerians in the areas of cultism, armed robbery, banditry and killings by herdsmen and unknown gunmen.
Director-General of Anambra Youth Mobilisation, Technology and Innovation, Emeka Okonkwo, told The Guardian in an interview in Awka, the state capital, yesterday, that youths should be involved in finding solutions to the crimes because most crimes are attributed to them.
Okonkwo, who spoke through the agency’s Secretary, Ugochukwu Emmanuel Ifediorah, said that most of the crises stemming from #EndSARS protests and killings by unknown gunmen, among others, were done by youths, a development that calls for payment of more attention on the young generation.
In the same vein, the State Chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Samuel Egwuatu, said that searchlight should be beamed on youths, who fall between the ages of 18 and 35 years to find solutions to the security challenges in the country.
Egwuatu observed that governments at all levels use youthful security operatives to tackle crime, and contended that youths, as non-state actors, should also be factored in the fight against banditry, kidnappings, armed robberies and killings.
He noted that the issue of insecurity starts from cult group members, who get initiated at a very young age and get emboldened a few years later to cause more havoc.
“The current happenings in Nigeria are beyond the police. The stakeholders must be involved to fight the cankerworm,” he said.
According to him, the organisation will start a campaign against youths in cult groups and unknown gunmen starting from the grassroots level to the state level.
The NYCN boss said the state had been working to tame the monster of insecurity by establishing community youth leaders in the 189 communities and involving youths, who dominate vigilante groups, to secure the communities.
In addition, he pointed out that the council has established the Anambra Youth Crime Committee to carry out campaign in each community, in partnership with the traditional ruler, town union leader and youth leader of each community.
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