Isaac Akinmoyede, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Zone 9, Umuahia, has asked the Abia State government to create employment for youths and an investment friendly atmosphere 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 Mr 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”.
Mr 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, promised to “contribute towards the growth of POCACOV”.
Earlier, the Abia Chairman of POCACOV, Adanma Odefa-Wachuku, who led the delegation, lauded the Inspector-General of Police for setting up POCACOV.
Mrs 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 worsening cultism.
POCACOV is a community-driven initiative of the police to sensitise different stakeholders to the dangers of cultism and other vices.
(NAN)
