The Imo State Government, through the Ministry of Youth Development and Talent Hunt, has organized a one day security summit for youths of the state with the aim of discouraging them from indulging in anti-social activities.

The summit, which featured heads of various security agencies in the state, was also targeted at tackling youth related violence.

Addressing the participants, the Commissioner for Youth Development and Talent Hunt, Emeka Mandela Ukaegbu, said that the summit is also aimed at sensitizing the youths on the need for peaceful environment for sustainable development.

He pointed out that no investor will like to stake his money in an unsecured environment.

The commissioner asserted that the only way youths can be gainfully employed is when there is relative peace and friendly environment that will attract investors.

He advised the youths to shun violence and embrace the opportunity provided by the government in the area of skill acquisitions, as well as talent hunts, through which youths can expose their ingenuity in sporting activities.

Ukaegbu added that there are many programmes lined up by the state government for the youths, which he maintained will enhance youth development and discourage them from indulging in crimes.

In his speech, the Commissioner of Police, CP Aboki Danjuma, represented by ACP Linus Nwaiwu, said the task of the security agencies will be less difficult if youths shun anti social behaviors and join in fighting crime.

He maintained that everybody is a stakeholder in the area of security.

Speaking also, the Commanding Officer, 34 Artillery Brigade Obinze, General I.M. Abbas, stressed on the importance of civic responsibility in nation-building.

He remarked that civil orderliness can only be obtained when the civilian populace, mostly the youths, begin seeing themselves as major stakeholders in fighting insecurity.

Abbas also pointed out that it is not possible for security agencies to be everywhere at the same time, saying crime can be prevented when everyone is engaged.

The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the 10th Governing Council of Imo State University, Rev. Fr. P. A. Ogbonna, harped on the need for youths to be closer to God as the only way to think positively. Ogbonna expressed optimism that the summit will yield positive results.

One of the participants, Chekwube Adinioha, from Ohaji /Egbema LGA, said the summit is timely as it will help in addressing community crisis mostly orchestrated by cult related activities.

He however maintained that there is urgent need for the government and oil companies operating in the state to address some important issues like unemployment, forceful acquisition of lands and infrastructural deficit.

Adinioha noted that neglect by oil companies, who he accused of working with some community leaders to frustrate the people, is the major cause of crisis witnessed in Oil Producing Communities.

Participants at the event were youths from the 27 LGAs and students from various institutions of higher learning in the state.

Germany’s foreign ministry pushed back in an extraordinary exchange with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he criticised Germany’s intelligence decision to label the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as “right-wing extremist”.

The dispute grew on Friday, involving Germany’s foreign office, Rubio, US Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk. It comes just before the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat and as Germany prepares to elect Friedrich Merz as chancellor after a coalition deal was reached last week.

The US government has strongly condemned the decision by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency to categorise the AfD as “right-wing extremist”.

The “right wing extremist” label that has been placed on the AfD allows authorities to monitor the party more closely. But critics, including AfD leaders and their US supporters, say the move is politically motivated.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X that having the power to “surveil the opposition” means Germany is “not a democracy, but a tyranny in disguise”.

It is not the AfD that is extremist, but the “deadly open-border immigration policies,” he continued.

Rubio called for the decision to be reconsidered, drawing a sharp rebuke from the German foreign ministry.

“This is democracy,” the Federal Foreign Office posted on X in reply to Rubio’s earlier post. “This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution and the rule of law. Independent courts will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped.”

In a post of his own on the same platform, JD Vance said that the AfD is “the most popular party in Germany,” and that bureaucrats are trying to “destroy it”.

“Together, the West tore down the Berlin Wall. And it has been rebuilt – not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment,” he continued.

Vance in particular has been vocal in his criticism of the European Union for what he has described as the suppression of freedom of speech.

At the Munich Security Conference in February, he accused European heads of state and governments of suppressing dissenting opinions, freedom of religion and freedom of expression.

“For many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it increasingly seems as if old, entrenched interests are hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation. They just don’t like the idea that someone with an alternative view could express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote differently or, worse still, win an election,” Vance said at the time, warning that this was straining Atlantic relations.

Vance later met with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel on the sidelines of the conference, even though she had not been officially invited by the event’s organisers.

A coalition of lawyers and civil society organisations has vowed to continue their protests, accusing former Group Chief Executive Officer, GCEO, of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, of attempting to derail investigations into the alleged mismanagement of billions of dollars allocated to refurbishing Nigeria’s refineries.