NSCDC hails revocation of pipeline contracts

                             

                             

…stakeholders seek stiffer sanctions against security quacks

Commandant-General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Dr. Ade Abolurin, yesterday described the Federal Government’s revocation of pipeline surveillance and protection contracts earlier granted to ethnic militias as the best decision in the collective interest of the citizenry.

Abolurin gave the commendation while speaking with journalists yesterday in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, shortly after delivering his address at a 4-day workshop organised by the College of Security Management of NSCDC in collaboration with the Institute of Security Studies, Lagos.

Abolurin, who was represented at the workshop by NSCDC Zonal Commandant in charge of Zone “F”, Assistant Commandant-General Jacobs Amujare, stressed that quacks tend to compromise security standards to the detriment of citizens when allowed to thrive in the country’s security circle.

Abolurin’s commendation of the Federal Government’s decision was, however, coming on the heels of government’s revocation of the pipeline surveillance and protection contract earlier awarded to many independent ethnic militias, which included the Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, and the Niger Delta militia group by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Since they are not well trained, they wouldn’t know the nitty-gritty of the job. Therefore, it is better to have well trained security agencies handle such things more so as it regards pipeline vandalism in Nigeria.”

Earlier in his address at the workshop, tagged “Strategic security management for change in private security practice,” Provost of NSCDC Security College, Commandant Iskil Makinde explained that the workshop was packaged together for the purpose of familiarising operators of the licenced private security guard companies with the developments in government policies in matters of security.

Emphasising that security situation in the country called for a collaborative efforts between government and private sectors, Makinde also stated that whoever is to be engaged by the licenced private security guard companies must have been trained by NSCDC and certified capable and free of any crime, stressing that the era of picking anybody on the streets and kitting such with security guard uniforms were gone.

At the workshop which had in attendance about 100 Chief Executive Officers of the Licensed Private Security Guard Practitioners of Nigeria drawn from across the country, the stakeholders called on federal government to further evolve a stiffer penalty against any quacks and unregistered security organisation caught in the security practice across the country.

The stakeholders, under the auspices of Association of Licensed Private Security Guard Practitioners of Nigeria, ALPSGPN, stressed that such move would bring about standardisation in security practice across the country.

Credit: nationalmirroronline.net/