The pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, yesterday, urged the Federal Government to allow graduates performing their mandatory one-year programme in the National Youths Service Corps, NYSC, to serve within their geopolitical zones.

Afenifere advised the Federal Government given the increasing rate of kidnapping and banditry across the country.

While commending the Federal Government and security agencies for rescuing kidnapped NYSC members who were on their way from Akwa Ibom to Sokoto State, the organization urged the government to equip security agents better for optimum performance.

Afenifere, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Jare Ajayi, reiterated its advocacy for enrollees to the NYSC scheme to serve within their geopolitical zones rather than going from one part of the country to the other.

The association further observed that these pockets of ‘achievements’ appear to be dwarfed by the avalanche of security challenges people are facing in different parts of the country.

Alluding to recent incidents, Ajayi noted that fear of kidnappers and attacks by bandits including cattle rustlers, are now rampant.

The Afenifere spokesman, who observed that kidnappers now seem to go for groups and high-profile individuals, called the attention of those concerned to factors responsible for banditry and kidnapping.

The organization stressed that attention should be given to the prevalence of ungoverned or under-governed spaces where the government’s control is ineffective.

Afenifere added that absence or paucity of government presence in such areas makes people of the area vulnerable to exploitation by terrorist groups, traffickers and other criminal elements.

He said: “The porosity of the borders has increased the influx of small arms and light weapons from the Sahel region – thus heightening the incentives for crimes and banditry.

“Illegal mining has created room for poor governance in the areas affected – resulting in poor service delivery, displacement of the local people, increasing unemployment as farmers and youths are forced out of their farmlands – a situation that is making these set of people to be ready recruits for banditry.”