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The Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV) has charged stakeholders on the need for moral, ethical and societal rebirth of youths.
This was revealed by POCACOV’s National Coordinator, CSP Ebere Amaraizu during his lecture at Dr Michael Okpara Auditorium, Umuahia Abia State on the occasion of flag off of the campaign against cultism, drug addiction and other vices by the Governor of Abia State, Dr Alex C Otti.
According to Amaraizu, there are dangers on ground arising from lack of integrity, lack of honesty morals values standard and discipline.
He said: “Some of our children and young persons today are no longer on the good path; rather, they have misunderstood greed and lack of contentment and drive for materialistic tendencies to be the right way.
“Today, family values have gone into oblivion; people are no longer giving back to the society, but rather constantly taking what is in the society.
“There is struggle to gain immunity to the detriment of social justice. Today, some of our youths have taken to substance and drug abuse as coping measure and way of being a functional member of the community.
“The implication is that the whole of these constitute push and pull factors and drivers to children and young persons and pathways to crime.”
He maintained that sustained advocacy and awareness creation anchored on promoting positive behaviour, changing of mindsets and attitude as well as exposing young minds to life-changing experience and opportunities were key. He said that what POCACOV was doing with stakeholders and multi agencies was deepening participation and helping in addressing the root causes like unemployment, poverty, poor parenting, peer group influence including push and pull factors to youth crime and challenges amongst others. He, however, made a case on improving parental framework for responsive and responsible parenting and high performance community sports centres across states local governments and wards to help in strengthening resilience, positive coping skills and positive engagement to turn young minds into national assets instead of becoming liabilities through criminal involvements.
Earlier, Governor Otti spoke on his administration’s readiness and commitment to effectively prevent crime by addressing its root causes through a collaborative efforts.
In his words, “we have people today pulling themselves together and inflicting injury, hurt, hate and even killing fellow human beings; this cannot be justified.”
DCP Sani Shauibu representing the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, commended the state government’s efforts at the campaign, describing it as worthwhile. He pointed out that this was in line with the mandate of the POCACOV initiative of the Nigeria Police which is geared towards educating different stakeholders on the dangers of cultism, substance and drug abuse, other vices and by also mobilising them towards problem solving. He, however, assured of the readiness of the police through collaborative efforts in addressing challenges posed by cultism, substance and drug addiction and other vices.
The Director General of Abia State Orientation Agency, Pastor Dike Nwankwo, underscored the hazards associated with cultism and drug addiction and expressed confidence that the campaign will stimulate a cross fertilisation of ideas leading to viable solutions to tackle the menace.
Prof Maduebibisi Iwe, the Vice Chancellor, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, identified key challenges facing the youths as unemployment, weak industrial base. He, however, emphasised the imperative of responsible citizenship and encouraged everyone especially the youths to play active role in fostering a better society.
