By Millicent Ifeanyichukwu
The Executive Director of Africa Youths Initiative on Crime Prevention, Mr Christogonus Ibeh, has identified prevention mechanism as the best option in global fight against crime.
Ibeh said this at the maiden edition of ‘Crime Prevention Summit for Secondary Schools in Lagos Mainland’, organised by Mainland Youths Initiative (MYI) in conjunction with Lagos State Education District IV, on Tuesday in Alagomeji, Yaba.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that that no fewer than 120 students from 12 schools attended the event with the theme, “Crime Prevention Amongst Teenagers As a Panacea for Development in the Next Generation of Emerging Leaders”.
According to him, the programme is organised to build the students’ personality ahead of the future to let them know that they have a life to live and that their personality determines who they want to be.
“I urge you to have a robust and very strong personality with focus to achieve a decent and responsible life against indulging in crimes and vices detrimental to yourselves, family and society at large.
“Weak personality easily gets into criminal activities because they are scared of the future due to lack of confidence, poor personality and they will want to take short-cut but if they begin now to build their future, definitely, they will stand the test of time and that is prevention.
“The issue of drug and substance abuse is everywhere and unfortunately the young ones are in the centre of this particular issue, therefore, prevention programmes like this remain cardinal for us as a country to win the war against crime in our communities.
“We don’t want them to know the colours of crime or get involved with four dates of criminal activities which are, Date with the Police, Date with the Court, Date with Prison and Date with the grave, because these dates have no friend nor relatives,” he said.
Speaking, Amodu Olamilekan, Co-Convener, MYI, said that the programme was borne out of a recent report of secondary school students engaged in cultism, hooliganism and many other social vices including drug abuse.
“I hope that the quality of today’s programme will go a long way in helping out and having a positive influence on our youths, communities and state at large.
“The unpleasant activities led to MYI mobilising security agencies to visit the schools affected on a talk-show on why they should desist from anti-social engagement in their schools and the communities at large.
“It is of no gain saying that many of those involved in the aforementioned scenario are young people who are within their teenage age.
”Our law enforcement agencies will agree with me that for every crime reported, six out of 10 are young people, this is alarming,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Adebola Rasheed, lawmaker, representing Lagos Mainland Constituency 11, said there was need to prioritise and instill discipline in the children starting from the home and by extension in educational system.
Rasheed said that measures should be put in place to engage students after school hours as part of efforts to keep them busy and stay off crime.
According to him, parents have a fundamental role by making out and spending time to understudy their children and instill discipline where necessary to channel them on the right direction.
“Even the teachers must be disciplined, upright and most importantly seek desire to upgrade themselves both academically and morally,” he added.
CSP Joseph Egwuonwu, in his presentation defined crime as an action or omission which constitute an offence and punishable by law.
He warned the students against the danger of getting involved in any kind of crime.
Egwuonwu highlighted causes and types of crime as poverty, peer pressure, unemployment, robbery, embezzlement, drug abuse, vandalism, assault, trafficking, sexual abuse, rape and domestic violence, among others.
“You must not engage in any form of crime, because all these crimes are punishable by law. So, make sure you face your studies and endeavour to be responsible citizens in your communities ,” he said.