Commandant General (CG) of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi mni, OFR, has commended the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) saying its training assistance given to the Corps has started yielding positive results by the recent arrest of a vessel with over 3,000 tonnes of crude by operatives of the NSCDC in collaboration with Tantitta.
The CG gave the commendation when he played host to the UNODC team during an impact assessment of the Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) Training carried out by the agency from 2022 - 2023 in which the NSCDC was part of it.
According to him, the significance and impact of the trainings in which 16 personnel of the Corps were involved is felt by the professional tactics which NSCDC operatives deployed which led to that remarkable arrest.
In furtherance, the Corps' helmsman maintained that Marine Training Modules by UNODC are impactful due to the psychological effects they have created on the behaviours of the participants, reiterating that more trainings were needed to enable the agency scale up on its mandate as a lead and coordinating agency in the protection of critical national assets and Infrastructure.
As part of his administration's roadmap, he disclosed his plan to introduce and launch a Special Maritime Squad, Special Mining and Transportation Squad as well Amphibious Training College and called on UNODC to assist in the area of training and infrastructure when time comes.
Speaking earlier in an overview of the purpose of the visit, Associate Programme Officer/Head of Office in Lagos at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Mrs Jane Kimani Kinyanzui, explained that UNODC has been collaborating with the Nigerian Navy and has so far trained personnel from security agencies such as Navy, Nigeria Police, National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the NSCDC.
In a rundown of the training activities in the period under review, the team explained the purpose of the visit to also include but not restricted to conducting evaluation in order to ascertain what will be beneficial NSCDC in next trainings and to know the current maritime security situation in Nigeria waters.
The team explained that their focus had also been on expanding on the tactical level of personnel to establish familiarity before the affected personnel meet on the field.
They revealed some of the courses expected to be carried out this year to include Maritime Domain Awareness and Boat maintenance among others.
During the interactive session, suggestions were made on how to focus some of the trainings on collaboration and synergy among security agencies and intelligence gathering among other areas.
