The officials of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have urged corps members to take an active role in combating terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, cultism, political thuggery, and other forms of insecurity across Nigeria.
The Major General Abubakar Adamu (retd.), Northeast Zonal Coordinator of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) made this appeal during a visit to the NYSC orientation camp in Bauchi.
Abubakar stressed that engaging young people, particularly corps members, in efforts to curb the spread of Small Arms and Light Weapons could significantly reduce insecurity in the near future.
He noted that the NCCSALW, operating under the Office of the National Security Adviser, was created in 2021 as the institutional framework for regulating and controlling Small Arms and Light Weapons in Nigeria.
Represented by Adamu Saleh, Assistant Director of Strategic Communication and Information at the NCCSALW Northeast Zonal Centre, the coordinator urged NYSC members to report any incidents involving the spread of Small Arms and Light Weapons.
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He warned that the unchecked proliferation of such weapons has fueled the rise of banditry, kidnapping, cultism, political thuggery, and other forms of insecurity across the country.
In his words, “Please, when you have been posted to your various places of primary assignment, look into these things, be a good ambassador to 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 urged the NYSC State Coordinator in Bauchi to collaborate with the centre in setting up a Small Arms and Light Weapons Community Development Service (CDS) group, similar to the one already operational in Borno State.
According to him, the group would receive training to enable them to train others, with the centre providing funding for its activities.
While responding, the NYSC State Coordinator, Umoren Kufre, said, “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.”
