The National Youth Service Corps Members have been urged to lead the way in fighting terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, cultism, political thuggery and all sorts of insecurity across the country.
The call was made by the Northeast Zonal Coordinator, National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, NCCSALW, Northeast Zonal Centre, Major General Abubakar Adamu (retd.) at the NYSC orientation camp in Bauchi on Tuesday.
Abubakar emphasised that with the involvement of the youth, especially corps members, in fighting the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons, insecurity issues would be a thing of the past in no distant time.
He explained that NCCSALW, under the Office of the National Security Adviser to the President, was established in 2021 as the institutional framework for the regulation and control of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the country.
Represented by Assistant Director, Strategic Communication and Information, NCCSALW, Northeast Zonal Centre, Adamu Saleh, the zonal coordinator, charged the National Youth Service Corps members to report any form of proliferation of small Arms and Light Weapons in the country.
He said that the proliferation of small arms and light weapons paved the way for an increase in banditry, kidnapping, cultism, political thuggery and all sorts of insecurity in the country.
According to him, “Please, when you have been posted out to your various places of primary assignment, look into these things, be a good ambassador of your parents, NYSC, your state and yourself by reporting anyone using these small arms and light weapons.
“If you know anyone who is fabricating small arms and light weapons, please report such because I believe without this, there will be no banditry, violence, cultism, political thuggery, Boko Haram, ISWAP and others.
“As part of the efforts of the Federal Government to curtail and fight the proliferation of small Arms and Light Weapons, the NCCSALW was created.
“It is part of the responsibility of this NCCSALW to be advocating, sensitising communities and key stakeholders in the fight against the proliferation of small Arms and Light Weapons.”
He called on the Bauchi State Coordinator of NYSC in Bauchi to work with the centre to establish the Small Arms and Light Weapons Community Development Service (CDS) group in the state, as has been established in Borno state.
The CDS group, he said, would be trained to train others, and its activities would be funded by the centre.
While responding, the NYSC Coordinator in the state, Umoren Kufr,e said that “Now that the relationship between the centre and NYSC in the state had been established, we would work toward the creation of the CDS group in the state.”
