Group Sensitises Rivers Youths Against Crime, Drug Abuse

A group, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) has begun a sensitisation campaign in secondary schools in Rivers State, against organised crimes ranging from drug abuse, cultism, examination malpractice and violent extremism.

It described organised crimes as a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralised enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activities, most commonly for profit.

YEAC’s executive director, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, spoke yesterday at the commencement of the campaign at Community Secondary School, Bori in Khana local government area of the state.

Fyneface blamed the rising cases of examination malpractice in secondary schools on parenting failure, corrupt educational system, poor students’ attitude, societal failure, undue emphasis on academic results/certificates acquisition against knowledge, and inadequate preparation by students.

He stated that organised crimes were continuously maintained through corruption of public officials and the use of intimidation, threats or forces to protect its operations.

Fyneface said, “Organised crimes manifest in the form of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining, illegal bunkering, kidnapping, banditry, insurgency, racketeering, cybercrimes, internet fraud (aka Yahoo-Yahoo), drugs/human trafficking, arms smuggling, sea piracy; illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, other fraudulent activities and environmental crimes, including illegal logging and even examination malpractice.”

YEAC-Nigeria director described examination malpractice as a deliberate wrongdoing contrary to official examination rules designed to place a candidate at an unfair advantage or disadvantage, and warned the students that penalty for exam malpractice under the 1999 Examination Malpractice Act include five years jail term or a fine of N100,000.

He said, “Examination malpractice include dubbing, sorting, copying, writing on the body, use of sign language, impersonation, leakage of exam questions, tampering with results, bribery, sex-for-marks, use of mercenaries, computer fraud during computer-based exams, fraudulent practices by invigilators, among others.”