The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nasarawa State, has begun the training of 5,000 members of vigilance group and Nasarawa Youths Empowerment Scheme (NAYES) on intelligence gathering.
NSCDC Commandant in the state Mohammed Mahmoud-Fari made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lafia on Wednesday.
NAN reports that the figure is made up of 2,000 vigilance members and 3,000 NAYES members.
Mahmoud-Fari said the training was necessitated by the command’s determination to synergise with other local outfits in the state to curtail criminal activities.
“Security business is everybody’s responsibility, therefore, cannot be left in the hands of the conventional security agencies alone, hence the needs to build the capacities of other local security outfit.
“Securing the state cannot be handled by only one security agency, reason we deliberately decided to train the vigilante and NAYES, given the complementary role they are already playing.
“We have decided to step down our expertise in security to these security outfits because they are like our younger sister and lacked the requisite training, support and resources, among others, we are privilege to have,” he added.
The commandant explained that the security challenges in the society was getting complicated by the day, and promised that the command would continued to share intelligence with sister agencies.
He explained that the collaboration with the vigilantes and NAYES in the state had started yielding result as some vandals and criminals have been arrested.
He said the training was going to be continuous, adding that at the moment they were training 2,000 vigilantes and 3,000 NAYES.
Mahmoud-Fari, who said the training was free, added that it involves mental, physical examination and exercise and would last for three months.
He, therefore, warned criminals to repent or relocate because with the measures on ground, criminals would have no hiding place in the state. (NAN)
