NGO rehabilitates 300 Sara Suka drug addict youths in Bauchi

DETERMINED to ensure a violence-free electioneering, a Bauchi based NGO, the Center for Juvenile Delinquency Awareness in Nigeria has rehabilitated over 300 youths in the State who were addicted to drugs and had ventured into political thuggery popularly known as ‘Sara Suka’ who have now become ‘Peace Ambassadors’.

The proprietor of the NGO, Hajiya Halima Baba Ahmad, stated this at a ceremony after the youths completed undergoing training and rehabilitation in Bauchi tagged ‘Rehabilitation Programme on Youth Delinquency and Drug Abuse’.

Halima Baba said the youths have denounced, ‘Sara Suka, social vices, theft, thuggery and taking of hard substances that get them intoxicated thereby indulging in criminal acts.

She said, “We started transforming and rehabilitation of youths more than two decades ago. So far, we have been able to transform and rehabilitate hundreds of youths by regularly attending the classes for rehabilitation programmes. We are convinced all the members of a deadly ‘Sara Suka’ killer group, who denounced their evil acts and have become peace ambassadors in their respective communities.”

She further explained that some of the repented persons don’t want to show their identity for fear of being arrested by security agencies and others want to avoid stigmatization, “but I can assure you that this youth has totally changed their ways and are now good citizens and ambassadors of peace.”

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She also said that, “It might also interest you to note that some of them have vocational skills, we returned many of them to schools and even those ones we are going to engage them in religious studies some will be trained on how to pass their senior secondary School Exams, while others are about to complete diploma, they will be trained and we had already appointed one person in each community that will register them for the programme to enable them to learn and contribute to the nation building.”

Various speakers at the occasion advised the repented persons not to go back to bad morals and continue to be good citizens that their parent’s society and society will be proud of them

They noted that the increasing cases of crime among youths, particularly youth restiveness was due to the influence of drugs and advised them to be wary of bad behaviours.

Speaking in a separate interview, a traditional ruler and ward head of Gwallaga, Mallam Dandada Ahmadu, said if youth restiveness was not properly checked and addressed, violent conflicts would remain unabated in most parts of the country.

Dandada Ahmadu tasked parents and government to take charge of issues of addressing youth restiveness from peace actors, saying this will assist a great deal in curbing civil unrest.

He advised the repentance youths to be of good behaviour and become good citizens.