By Meletus EZE
Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr Abdullahi Muhammadu, on Tuesday, urged management of educational institutions to verify the status of private security agencies before engaging them.
Muhammadu made the call in his address at the 2018 Safe School Leadership Empowerment Conference and Awards in Abuja.
The Commandant-General’s address was entitled: “Diligence in Recruitment, Engagement and Verification of Security Companies and Other Categories of Staff by Educational Institutions”
Muhammadu, who was represented by Mr James Efuwayze, Deputy Commandant, NSCDC, said verification of private security agencies would ensure that people of questionable characters are neither allowed to own a security company nor allowed to be employed as guards.
He said that the NSCDC is saddled with the responsibility of licensing, monitoring and supervision of Private Guard Companies in Nigeria since the Act that established the Corps took effect.
The Commandant-General said the Corps was the only government agency that has the register of all licenced private security companies and the profile of their directors in Nigeria.
“Hence, for a due diligence in recruitment, engagement and verification of security companies in our educational institutions, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps provides the data bank to be relied upon.
“We provide information on status of private security companies to all sectors in Nigeria and educational institutions are not an exception.
” Therefore, we enjoined institutions that have not been having a recourse to the Corps before engaging any private security to endeavour to do so now.
“We want to propose that the conference should make it part of the Communiqué at the end of this conference, that the status of security companies must be obtained from the corps before they are engaged,” he said.
He said that most educational institutions in the country employed security personnel that were neither trained nor profiled.
“The norm in most of our educational institutions now is to employ some set of young people, sow uniform for them and deploy them to perform security duties without being trained nor profiled.
” This had led to many incidences of rape, kidnapping and in some cases killing of innocent pupils they are employed to guard,” he said.
He noted that when many of these incidences occurred, it sometimes become difficult to trace the perpetrators because those involved in their recruitments know little or nothing about security.
“The above scenario must be stopped and companies that are not licensed must not be engaged,” he warned.
He urged Safe School Academy International to ensure they replicate some of the security measures put in place by the Corps, in ensuring the recruitment of other categories of staff in whose hands children’s lives were placed.
According to him, most of the vices today are learnt in schools from those we entrust our children to thereby corrupting the whole system.
“To avoid this, all of us must be vigilant, encouraged to obey and enforce provisions of our laws in relations to the recruitment of all categories of staff that are working in our educational institutions.
“So as not to jeopardise our future, and the life of our children”, he said
The Safe School Leadership Empowerment conference is a project under the Safe School Empowerment Project (SASEP).
SASEP is a project committed to working with educational institutions and agencies to enhance capacity for development and implementation of protection, precautionary, preventive measures against security risks, threats and vulnerability.
