The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has affirmed its commitment to maintaining strong collaborations with the Geneva Centre to enhance the statutory responsibility of the Corps in training, supervision, monitoring and licensing the private guard companies (PGC) in Nigeria.
Emphasising the vital role of the private security guards in gathering prompt intelligence and information needed to provide security across the board.
The NSCDC Commandant General, Dr. Ahmed Abubakar Audi, said that the nation’s security cannot be left solely in the hands of state actors, hence the need to engage critical stakeholders like licenced private security practitioners.
“The involvement of private security practitioners is central to a holistic approach to security matters because they spread across the country,“ he said.
The CG added: “The credible intelligence drawn from private security practitioners helped security forces take actionable steps in forestalling criminal activities and their perpetrators.
“This is the reason we leverage on the widespread practice of private guard companies whose regularisation and licencing are under the purview of NSCDC.”
Speaking earlier, the Senior Project Officer of the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF), Switzerland, Mission to Nigeria, Ms. Gabrielle Anne Priklopil, commended the Corps and its personnel for the commitment demonstrated towards the progress of private security sector governance in Nigeria.
Ms. Priklopil explained that DCAF is an international foundation based in Geneva that was set up in 2000 and has spread to over seventy countries to improve the private security sector and governance through partnerships with different stakeholders to ensure that security arrangements respond to the needs of the population according to international human rights laws.
“Private security is an important part of the security provision and we look at how private actors influence security sectors and how they promote their members,” she explained.
In her response to the Committee inaugurated by the Ministry of Interior, she therefore called for support and partnership so that the Corps could develop a comprehensive strategy to monitor private security operations across the nation. VON
