THE Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has trained 200 of its personnel on use of firearms to boost security operations in the country.

The NSCDC spokesman, Mr Emmanuel Okeh, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday that the personnel, drawn from 10 state commands, were trained between June and July.

The states were Borno, Bauchi, Niger, Taraba, Sokoto, Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, Yobe and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

“The essence of the training is to beef up personnel to be deployed to work in joint force with the military and other security agencies and to deploy some trained personnel to areas with critical security issues for protection.

“We want all personnel, especially operational personnel to be highly informed on how to handle firearms.

“This is why the firearms bearing training cuts across how to avoid accidental bullet discharge and the use of different brands of arms.

“Because the corps personnel are into joint operations with other security agencies, there is no room for excuse not to operate any type of firearms presented for operations,” he said.

He said that all personnel of the corps were expected to be trained notwithstanding their various departments.

Okeh also said that personnel who had received training were later trained on ‘Refresher Courses.’

He said the refresher courses cover cautionary measures, interpersonal communications, public relations, synergy and intelligence.

He noted that personnel of the corps were advised to relate well with other security agencies during operations in order to avoid crisis.

NAN reports that the corps had earlier trained over 20,000 of its personnel on the use of arms for security operations.

The spokesman said the corps had started compiling names from some state commands and the headquarters for more personnel to be trained.

“At least between now and October another batch is expected to resume training on the use of firearms,” he said. (NAN)

– Aug. 10, 2018 @ 17:05 GMT |