Mr Chris Owolabi, the Anambra State Police Commissioner has warned the youths, especially students, to desist from any form of practices that could compromise their bright future.
He explained that about 90 per cent of cult-related deaths in Nigeria had no documentation.
Owolabi informed that most parents/guardians of those students that involved in cult practices and were killed in the process did not want such cases investigated due to their natures and the accompanying shame.
He stated this at a Peace/Security Summit organized by the National Association of Nigeria Student NANS, in collaboration with the Anambra State Police Command at the University Auditorium, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, on Tuesday with the theme “Importance of Safe Society and The Role of Nigerian Students, Youths in the Security of Our Campuses,” aimed at sensitising students on the need for proper security in their neighbourhood.
The Commissioner of Police, who was represented by the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations in the state, ACP Emmanuel Ogbuanya, stressed that cultism had been the mother of most crimes committed by the youths.
He said that the high rate of illegal drug consumption had landed most youths in trouble and early grave and advised them to quit the act.
According to him, most cultists were groomed in the institutions of learning and advised parents to take issue of cultism seriously, adding that parents must learn to inculcate good moral values in their children as well as monitor their movements.
He urged students across institutions of learning in the country to be brave and release timely information to security forces in their various state.
In his welcome remarks, the convener and NANS Senate President, Comrade Chuks Innocent Okafor, said the event was a product of the insecurity currently witnessed in the county.
Okafor added that security in the country had deteriorated terribly, hence the need for youths to step up for a solution.
He attributed crimes from youths to the exponential rise in the consumption of hard drugs by youths of the country and urged them to desist from such or risk being destroyed by the act.
Okafor who lamented the current security situation in the country especially in the South-East region urged the government to stop the spate of killings and raping of farmers by Fulani militia group.
He also called on leaders to organize a national summit where problems of the country would be discussed and addressed.
In his goodwill message, the host and Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Professor Charles Esimone, said that a lot of lives and future had been truncated owing to the current wave of insecurity in the country.
“It is time we advise ourselves and turn from hearers of words to doers of good things. He urged them to heed advice from Police in their daily living”, he said.
Esimone, represented by the Dean of Student Affairs, Professor Chinonso Achebe, also advised the students to be security-conscious and enjoined them to take the security of their lives and their environment serious.
Speaking on the theme of the summit, Comrade Obiora Agbasimelo urged the youths to imbibe the spirit of unity, tolerance and accept one another irrespective of social and ethnic background.
While urging the youths to obtain and play an active role in the coming Anambra State governorship election, he advised them to shun and resist being used as tools in the hands of politicians to execute heinous crimes.
In their separate voices, the Chairman of the occasion, Chief Stanley Chukwudumeme Okolie and his co-Chairman, Chief Foster Ezenwa Ihejiofor, appreciated the state Police Command, the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Baba Alkali, and NANS for organising such an important programme that would promote constant police-community relations in the interest of the state and the nation at large.
