Abia Police command to set up campus outreach to forestall cultism, other crimes

Following the directive of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to deepen community policing in the country, the Abia State Police command in partnership with the Church is to establish campus outreaches in tertiary institutions in the State.

The aim of the outreach according to Peter Wagbara, commander, Aba Area Command of the Nigeria Police, is to sensitise students of tertiary institutions on the dangers of cultism and other heinous crimes.

Wagbara, an assistant commissioner of Police, while addressing worshipers at the “Repositioning Centre”, Aba,  Region 15 headquarters of the  Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) also stated that the project is aimed at forestalling unnecessary killing of our youths, through cultism and other crimes, he stated.

He stated that the youths are getting themselves dangerously involved in crime, noting that the project is aimed at rescuing them.

“We want to rescue them from the clutches of cultism and other dangerous crimes and when we rescue them, we will hand them over to the Church to restore them”.

Wagbara revealed that the project with the theme “rescue and restore” has received the approval of the Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, Commissioner for Education and the Rector of the Abia State Polytechnic, Aba and would  be launched on October 28, 2016 at the Abia State Polytechnic.

He explained that teenagers and youths make up majority of people arraigned in courts and subsequently sent to prison, and attributed the ugly trend to parent’s nonchalant attitude towards their children.

In his words, “parents are busy pursuing money and other issues of life, they don’t have time to play with their children, they don’t have time to talk to them, give them good moral instructions and that is why cultism is thriving in our tertiary institutions.

“The dangerous trend is that it has even left the campuses to our communities. In Aba you have the Aros’ operating within Ohanku,  Aba axis.

“Residents of Immaculate and Over-rail area of Aba, do not sleep again, because of the activities of these cult groups. Just recently, one young man was hacked down with an ax.

“Also at Temple gate Polytechnic, a student was shot by fellow students and when they come back at the end of the semester, we receive them as good children, whereas we don’t know what they are doing out there.

“In August, five students went on robbery at Nwaigwe axis with pump-action guns and other dangerous weapons and shot a fellow student and a barber. And those arrested are right now in prison.

“And so it is getting frightening. And that is why we are appealing to the church to join us in this project and the responses we are getting are tremendous.

“We believe that when we share our experiences from the pulpit, for those of us, who are on this side and well meaning citizens, who have been there too, who misbehaved in the past, but have been transformed,   perhaps God will use them to touch these children, “he stated.