By Hamisu Kabir Matazu, Damaturu.

An NGO, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has organized inter-tertiary institutions debates on insurgency to encourage youths’ participation in counter-terrorism in Yobe, Borno, Adamawa and the rest of the Northeast.

Speaking after the debate, the senior programme officer of CITAD, Isa Garba, said it would generate ideas on how the scourge of terrorism would be stemmed using the youths who were principal actors and main sources of recruitment.

He said the programme which was sponsored by the Northeast Regional Initiative (NERI) was not to produce winners or losers but to awaken the youths to their role in ending the Boko Haram insurgency.

Topics like ‘How youths can contribute to ending insurgency in the Northeast’ and ‘How students of tertiary institutions can contribute to addressing the problems of Internally Displaced Persons IDPs,’ among others, were debated on with three participants each from Federal University Gashua, Federal Polytechnic, Damaturu, and the host Yobe State University.

At the end, the Federal Polytechnic Damaturu emerged winner with participants receiving a desktop computer and four cell phones, while Federal University Gashua and Yobe State University came second and third respectively.