Security Agencies Move to Stop Youth Restiveness in Niger

Laleye Dipo in Minna

Security operatives in Minna, Niger State have held  a workshop on the best ways to checkmate youth restiveness and other crimes within the state’s capital and other towns.

The workshop arose as a result of the heightened clashes between various youth gangs in the state capital, which has resulted in no less than five deaths as well as injuries to many others and destruction of valuable property.

The workshop, which was titled “The Legal and Non Legal Weapons of Self Defence,” was packaged by the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) in collaboration with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

The Director General of the NSEMA, Mr. Ibrahim Ahmed Inga, said that the government was disturbed by the increase in youth groups clashes that have contributed to the tense security situation in Minna and the state as a whole.

Inga blamed the elites in the society for giving support to the youth gang leaders whom he said have become more daring, adding that the workshop was organised to find solution to the menace.

He, therefore, asked the security agencies to suggest steps that would be taken to bring the incidences to an end, assuring that the state government would give them the needed support.

A Legal Practitioner, Mr. Dantani Sallau, who is one of the resource persons during the workshop, in his presentation narrated an ugly incident that occurred in Minna recently when a notorious gang leader whose boys reportedly killed a young boy went to the burial ground to stop the burial of the deceased but was deterred from achieving his mission by collaborative efforts of members of the public.

Sallau said: “This is how bad and daring these gangs have become. This is the height of impunity these youth groups can go.”

In an address to the workshop, the director general of NIMASA pleaded with government to take drastic steps to stop youth restiveness assuring of the agencies support.