By Providence Emmanuel
NATIONAL president of the National Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators, NCNDE-A,  Eshanekpe Israel, a.k.a Akpodoro has called for the establishment of a community based intelligence gathering system as a twin pronged strategy to curb youth restiveness and unemployment in the region.

Akpodoro who spoke in Abuja, said that harnessing the energy and intellect of the youths would help address the incidence of killings in the communities.

The Urhobo-born former militant said: “The selected youths should be drawn from their respective local government areas and unless this is done, the conventional security apparatus may not be able to effectively deliver because the issue of crimes and criminalities in the contemporary Nigeria is becoming what he called hydra-headed with a need to tackle it head on.

“Apart from creating jobs for the youth population,  if created in all the local government areas in the country, criminality will reasonably reduce and thereby reduced the orgy of killings in the country.

“For instance,  a man from Cross River State no matter how armed cannot better over run Mangu in Plateau State but will need the input from the locals to succeed. All the security agencies need do, is to pull their information together, filter them and act accordingly without fear or favour in the spirit of patriotism and national solidarity.

“The conventional security agencies carry out ad-hoc operations in their areas of postings and criminals return as soon as the security agents leave but the locals live among them and would always drag anyone with propensity for crimes before the authority.”