The Assistant Inspector-General of Police,(AIG) Zone 9, Umuahia, Isaac Akinmoyede, has called on government to generate employment for youths and provide an atmosphere conducive for investments, to curb cultism and other vices.
He made the call when the Abia chapter of the Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV) paid a courtesy and advocacy visit to him in his office on Friday.
Zone 9 comprises Abia, Imo and Ebonyi commands.
According to Akinmoyede, one of those conducive atmospheres is security.
He said that Police were trying all within their means to ensure the society became secured.
The police boss, who decried the rising cultism, said it had gone beyond the higher institutions and came down to secondary schools.
The former Commissioner of Police in Plateau and Imo, expressed regrets that even artisans were now involved in cultism, saying “it is really a big headache”.
Akinmoyede said that incessant strikes and other circumstances that kept students away from school, had always led to the rise in street cultism.
He said: “But thank God the schools are up and doing again, and it is believed that when schools are kept busy, there will be reduction in vices in the society.
“Policing is not an easy task, all what is required is continued support from members of the public and POCACOV, to ensure that we are able to do our job in the best possible way.”
The AIG who commended the group for doing a lot for the police and the society, pledged his support “and in any way I know I can contribute towards the growth of POCACOV I will do so.”
Earlier, the Abia Chairman of POCACOV, Mrs Adanma Odefa-Wachuku, who led the delegation, lauded the Inspector-General of Police for setting up POCACOV.
Odefa-Wachuku described community policing as the present and future of policing “because all the criminals, cultists and others who engage in other vices are from families and communities”.
According to her, POCACOV has the same objective with the police, which is to curb cultism that is worsening on the streets.
The News Agency of Nigeria NAN reports that POCACOV is a community-driven initiative of the Nigeria Police to sensitise different stakeholders to the dangers of cultism and other vices. (NAN)
