The Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Gilberto Duarte Santos has said to tackle issues of crime in the society, the youth must not only be given a voice, but they must also be positioned to address these challenges including crimes.

Speaking, yesterday, at the opening of a two-day Hackathon4Justice with the theme, Sustainable Development Goal 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong institutions, Santos said the project was aimed at giving young people the chance to come up with their own ideas to curb crimes, as well as educate their peers on the rule of law, using technology.

According to him, 80 university students who are to be guided by 20 mentors are expected to come up with technological ideas on how to prevent crimes in Nigeria. The programme is a product of a partnership among UNODC, Facebook and Andela.

Talent Partnership Lead, Andela Nigeria, Mayowa Onanuga said: “What we are hoping to see from this hackathon is for people to build solutions that can solve societal problems, and ultimately prevent crime and injustice in Nigeria.”

One of the participating students, Rita Okonkwo, a 500-level Computer Engineering Student at the University of Benin, said she and her team were working on a mobile app to raise awareness about crimes.