The President of the Nigeria Youth Congress (NYC), Comrade Blessing Akinlosotu, has disclosed the readiness of the association to assist in curbing the prevalent cases of electric cable wire, manhole and gully covers vandalism in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
To this end, the group proposed a youth and student vanguard system, which is a composition of the youths and students to serve as the community information sources.
Speaking at the ‘’youth and students sensitisation/retreat on protecting critical infrastructure in the FCT, such as manholes, gully covers, cable and street lights from vandals’’, held in Abuja recently, Akinlosotu, lamented that Nigerians do not have access to those facilities because of the vandals.
The event was themed: “Fight against vandalism, terrorism and militancy in the FCT; the youth and students’ option’’.
He said: “There is a lot of vandalisation going on everywhere in the FCT. Manhole covers, gully covers, electric cable wire, so many things they are vandalising them. People that are supposed to be using the facility do not have access to it because of the vandals, and we see that prevention is better than cure.
“If something is vandalised before you take actions, it is not better as you protect it from these vandals. So we are able to look at it from the angle of the youth and students, who have energy, capability and they have everything it takes to support the FCT to achieve this.
“We are trying to initiate a kind of youth and student vanguard in a system whereby we can be able to use the energy and the resourcefulness of the youth and the student to support the FCT to be able to curb this excessive vandalism that is going rampant in the FCT’’.
Also speaking, the Chairman, National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), FCT chapter, Comrade Ango Abdullahi, decried the spate of facility vandalism in the FCT, and called for the inclusion of the traditional institution in the fight against it in the capital city.
He also called for the deployment of information and intelligent gathering to stop kidnapping and other crimes in the city.
On his part, the FCT Scout Commissioner, Dr. Geven Omonigho, said the remote cause of the crime should be investigated and addressed in order to have a crime-free society.
