Zamfara Government said it would spend N1.53 billion annually on 8,500 youths to be engaged as members of civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) to fight crime in the state.
The Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Bello Dankande, made this known at a news conference in Gusau on Tuesday.
He said that the amount constituted the allowance to be paid to members of the JTF.
According to Dankande, the allowance will be drawn directly from the state government’s security vote.
He explained that selected youths would undergo para-military training in crime fighting and intelligence gathering and dissemination.
The commissioner said that the youths were picked from the rural areas, and said stated that the measure was deliberately conceived by the state government “because they know those who reside among them.
“They also know the bushes where the bandits may be hiding and it will now be easier for the conventional security to trace the bandits or their hideouts.’’
The state governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, had last week said that 500 youths would be selected from 17 emirate council in the state to join the conventional security operatives to fight crime.
Yari told newsmen that each of the youths would receive monthly allowance of N15,000. With reports by NAN
