Police train 163 on counter-terrorism, kidnapping

A total of 163 officers of the Nigeria Police Force and related Security Agencies in Zone 1 are being trained on counter terrorism, in a bid to improve upon the security situation in the country.
The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, disclosed this on Monday at the opening session of a five-day National Counter terrorism incidents commanders’ management course held in Kano, in collaboration with the British High Commission.
Idris, represented by the AIG Zone 1, Dan Bature, emphasised that the officers should be well-trained to enable them have a firmer hold on the challenges of counter-terrorism and kidnapping.
He said: “The training, in collaboration with the British High Commission, has been approved to train officers in all the 36 states of the federation.
“We have done up to 90 per cent of such trainings and hopefully, the capacity of our officers will improve in counter-terrorism.”
According to him, the job of security does not fall only on police officers, even the civilians and other security agencies would collaborate to work together to have a peaceful society.
Idris said: “The Nigeria Police Force will continue to partner with other sister agencies to curb any form of criminal activities, especially terrorism in the country.”
In his remarks, the Kano State Commissioner of Police, Rabiu Yusuf, urged the participants to pay serious attention to the course.
Yusuf said that the training would expose the participants to taking urgent steps in responding to emergencies.
He said that the course will enable the participants to have the knowledge when they visit crime scenes to preserve the scene, most especially ensure that exhibits are not tampered with as a matter of urgency.
He said: “Sister security agencies will go along way with other agencies to collaborate and synergize with other security bodies to attain our objectives.’’
Speaking earlier, the facilitator of the training, CSP Asuquo Okon, also said that the training is to build the competencies and capabilities of the Police Force, along-side other security agencies in responding to incidences, in line with global practice.
Okon said: “The course was categorised into three segments: the first is to understand more details of major incidences and the second segment is responding to their roles and responsibilities, to yield multi agencies’ support.
“The third segment is post incidence management of recovery of the community, investigation and media scene management.’’
Of the 163 participants, 50 police officers are from Kano, Jigawa and Katsina, while 13 others are from security agencies such as the Nigerian Army, the Directorate of State Security, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Federal Road Safety Corps  and the Federal Fire Service.