NSCDC Gets Aregbesola’s Fresh Mandate

Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has charged men and officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC), to show more commitment to the internal security of the nation by living up to expectation.

The Minister gave the charge in Abuja on Thursday at the commissioning of 96 newly acquired operational and logistics vehicles by the NSCDC. Aregbesola said the fact that government has continued to revolve strategies to address the many challenges of insecurity in the nation, is enough to put all security agencies on their toes to defend the nation from all forms of internal security threats, noting that no excuse would be entertained should they fail to live to their expectations.

He said: “The federal ministry of interior plays an important role in managing the nation’s internal security. “We do this in policy formulation generally, and in the supervision or superintendence of the four paramilitary gencies with us and these agencies are the NSCDC, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), and the Federal Fire Service (FFS).“These agencies are in the forefront of the business of protecting lives and property and putting an end to insecurity in the country by playing a complimentary role with other security agencies like the Nigeria Police.”

The minister noted that “with vehicular support and equipment as well as other supports given to the corps, there is no excuse for failure than to deliver on its mandate.”He reiterated that the inauguration of the vehicles was another leap in promoting NSCDC for better performance in tandem with President Muhammadu Buhari’s policy of intolerance of anything that threatens the security of the nation.He further explained that the support is to enable personnel of the corps to mobilise and arrive timely at scenes of crimes or events for improved service delivery.

The minister, who described the corps as a Nigerian creation, warned personnel against being brutal but rather encouraged them to uphold civility and to engage the populace in pursuant to its mandate of protectingthe country’s critical national assets and infrastructure, anti-vandalisation, regulation of private guards companies, crisis and disaster management and agro rangers etc.He commended the Commandant General of NSCDC, Dr. Ahmed Audi, which he described as focused and visionary. Audi assured that the minister that the supports the corps have received would serve as catalyst in boosting activities of the corps and promised to utilise them effectively and efficiently to serve the purposes for which they were acquired.