The pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, has advised the Federal Government to allow graduates performing their mandatory one-year programme in the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) to serve within their geopolitical zones due to the increasing rate of kidnapping and banditry across the country.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Jare Ajayi, Afenifere commended the Federal Government and security agencies for rescuing kidnapped NYSC members who were on their way from Akwa Ibom to Sokoto State. However, the organization urged the government to equip security agents better for optimum performance.
Afenifere reiterated its advocacy for NYSC members to serve within their geopolitical zones, citing security risks. The organization noted that despite recent rescues, security challenges persist, with fear of kidnappers and attacks by bandits, including cattle rustlers, now rampant.
Afenifere called attention to factors responsible for banditry and kidnapping, stressing the need to address ungoverned or under-governed spaces where government control is ineffective. The organization emphasized that absence or paucity of government presence in such areas makes people vulnerable to exploitation by terrorist groups, traffickers, and other criminal elements.
He said: “The porosity of the borders has increased the influx of small arms and light weapons from the Sahel region – thus heightening the incentives for crimes and banditry.
“Illegal mining has created room for poor governance in the areas affected – resulting in poor service delivery, displacement of the local people, increasing unemployment as farmers and youths are forced out of their farmlands – a situation that is making these set of people to be ready recruits for banditry.”
