The North East Development Commission NEDC has commenced the training of private security outfits to complement the effort of security agencies in combating criminal activities in the region.
Borno state Coordinator of the Commission Alhaji Mohammed Umaru while declaring the training open in Maiduguri, said twenty registered private security outfits would participate in the programme.
Borno state Coordinator North East Development Commission Mohammed Umaru said the training programme is aimed at enhancing the capacity of private security organisations to actively participate in crime prevention and maintenance of peace in the society.
Alhaji Umaru pointed out that aside from providing humanitarian support and empowerment programme, NEDC also has the mandate of supporting activities that would promote peace and development of the region.
The Coordinator explained that participants would also be trained in areas of deradicalization and reintegration of repentant insurgents now that they have begun to surrender in large number.
“We are targeting twenty in each state, so Borno is also twenty and what we want to inculcate into the security personnel is to update them about what is happening in the security space and how to accommodate those insurgents who have come back to surrender ” Umaru remarked.
Coordinator of the training programme, Dr Mohammed Suleiman said the purpose of the training was to provide network where private security outfits in the state would share knowledge and synergies to work together in order to improve the security situation.
According to him, the programme will cover aspects of intelligence gathering, strengthen collaboration between the organisations, security and law enforcement agencies as well as the community.
“We want to have this knowledge, how a security personnel will handle a case, how to handle a suspect, his role, his limit, this is what we will be discussing during the exercise ” Dr Suleiman said.
Some of the participants expressed their delight, noting that the programme was an opportunity to garner more knowledge on the activities of informal security operatives.
The three-day training has as its theme, the role of informal security operatives in combating insecurity in the North East region.
Dauda Iliya
