Enugu: Governor Peter Mbah, Chairman of the NEC Committee on Security Training Reform, has announced that the Federal Government will renovate and equip security training institutions nationwide, following President Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency due to the poor condition of these institutions.
Mbah stated this during his visit to the training school and the Police Detective College in Enugu on Sunday.
The Chairman also decried the state of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Training School in Oji-River Council Area of Enugu State.
Addressing reporters shortly after inspecting the facilities at the NSCDC Oji-River training school, Mbah stated that the exercise was part of the committee’s ongoing fact-finding mission to assess the state of the training facilities.
According to him, it is a national mission that President Bola Tinubu personally initiated to address the challenges faced by security training institutions across the nation.
He explained that the committee was designed to overhaul the entire training institutions for both the Police and the NSCDC.
“We divided ourselves into two teams – a team to the north and a team to the south. I lead the southern team and serve as the Chairman of the committee. We have visited several training institutions.
“Today we are at the Nigeria Civil Defence Corps training centre at the Oji River, Enugu State.
“What we have seen here is very disturbing. This is essentially what the president also saw and felt was not acceptable,” Mbah said.
According to him, we cannot have men and women who are meant to protect our communities trained in this sort of environment.
“So we need to ensure that all the training institutions in the country are renovated, refurbished, reconstructed, and re-equipped to meet the training requirements of our civil defence corps for 21st-century policing”.
Highlighting the urgency of the assignment, Mbah explained that the committee was given just 30 days to submit its report by the next National Economic Council meeting.
He further stated that the report would be comprehensive and based on an on-the-spot assessment, disclosing that the committee had consultants who would also engage with the different commanders of the various institutions.
“The idea would be for them to do a deep dive to ascertain the areas that we need to intervene urgently to ensure that the equipment and infrastructure here are optimal.
Noting that the Federal Government recently approved the recruitment of 30,000 police officers, Mbah said the president also recognised that these officers protecting communities must be given world-class training.
There is a need for intervention across the nation in our training institutions, colleges, and schools.
“They must be upgraded to be able to provide the evolving 21st-century skills that are required,” he said.