The Rivers State government has vowed that criminal elements, cultists or youths with questionable character or those who are mentally unstable will no longer aspire or hold positions of leadership in youth organizations within the State.
The Commissioner for Youth Development, Hon. Prince Obi Ohia who stated this recently while releasing the guidelines for conduct of elections into community based youth organizations across the state, warned that the ministry would henceforth only grant approval for election to youth groups who have successfully undertaken their revalidation exercise with the ministry and issued with certificates of revalidation.
Ohia explained that the Youth Executives of such communities who desire to conduct their youth elections must communicate in writing to the ministry before proceeding with the formation of an electoral committee that will oversee the election process inline with the constitution of the said organisation on the basis of families, compounds or zonal representation.
He further said that the ministry of youth development would supervise the electoral process alongside a representative of the relevant Local Government Area.
According to him, a list of intending aspirants inclusive of their personal photographs and contact details should be forwarded to the Ministry of Youth Development.
“The list would be transmitted to the Department of Security Service or Nigeria Police Force to screen/profile such aspirants and exclude those with questionable character.
After the screening by the DSS or the Police as the case maybe, the results would be transmitted to the Governor for final approval”, he said.
He said the Government has initiated these painstaking processes to ensure that youth restiveness and activities are checked and reduced to the barest minimum.
It would be recalled that the Rivers State Government had on 8th August Last year proscribed all activities of community based youths in the state in view of a series of intelligence reports of cult related activities that had disrupted public peace in various communities in the state.
This prompted the Government through its Ministry of Youth Development to commence a revalidation exercise of all Youth Bodies in the state and is currently ongoing.
The idea, the Commissioner noted, was to produce a verifiable database of Youth Groups in the state which consequently would aid Government in planning, monitoring and evaluation of youth programmes in the State.
