NCCSALW urges corps members to promote peaceful communities and help curb small arms proliferation.
The Federal Government, through the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), has partnered with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to tackle insecurity and the proliferation of illicit arms in the country.
The Northeast Zonal Director of the NCCSALW, Maj. Gen. Abubakar Adamu (retd.), disclosed this on Friday while speaking at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Bauchi.
Adamu, who was represented by the centre’s Assistant Director of Strategic Communication and Information, Aminu Saleh, said corps members could play a key role in promoting an illicit arms-free society through sensitisation activities at their places of primary assignment.
He said similar initiatives involving corps members in Borno and Yobe had yielded positive results, urging corps members across the Northeast to participate actively in efforts to curb the spread of small arms and light weapons.
According to him, illicit small arms and light weapons fuel banditry, kidnapping, cultism, political thuggery, insurgency and other forms of criminality, while also worsening trans-border insecurity.
Adamu also called on parents and guardians to promote responsible upbringing and teach children tolerance, peaceful coexistence and the dangers of violence.
He urged NYSC coordinators across the Northeast to collaborate with the NCCSALW to establish Small Arms and Light Weapons Community Development Service groups in their respective states.
The Bauchi State NYSC Coordinator, Umoren Kufre, commended the initiative and pledged to strengthen collaboration with the centre to combat illicit arms proliferation through community sensitisation.
Some corps members who attended the programme also pledged to serve as ambassadors of the NCCSALW and support efforts to promote peaceful and secure communities.