The Ijaw Youth Council in Bayelsa State said on Friday that it would assist law enforcement agencies to rid the state of crime.
The IYC Secretary-General, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, revealed this when the youth council received two buses from the state government in the state capital, Yenagoa. Eradiri said the two 18-seater buses would enable the IYC assist the police in fishing out criminal elements in the state.
The IYC official urged the state government to sustain the youth development programmes it had instituted because it had helped several young people to channel their energies towards more positive ventures. He added that the overseas training programme initiated by the state government had contributed to the reduction of youth restiveness in the state.
The state Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, had in his remarks at the presentation ceremony, appealed to the IYC to assist the government in curbing anti-social vices such as pipeline vandalism, kidnapping, abduction and militancy. Represented by his Special Adviser on Youth Matters, Mr. Israel Sunny-Goli, the governor said such criminal activities had adversely affected the development of the state.
Specifically, Sylva said that construction giant, Julius Berger Plc, had abandoned the dualisation work on the Bayelsa and Rivers states section of the East-West road, while other contractors had threatened to quit the state if the harassment from criminals did not stop.
