The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) on Tuesday in Ibadan launched the Safe School Response Team to protect schools from all forms of attack in the South-West region.
The Oyo State Commandant of the NSCDC, Dr Michael Adaralewa, while speaking at the ceremony, said the Federal Government has domiciled the coordination of the safe schools initiative with the Corps.
Adaralewa disclosed that the component of the safe schools drive includes the Nigerian military, the Police Force and other key stakeholders.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Safe School Response Team is a vital component of the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre (NSSRCC).
It is a national initiative to protect children and schools from security threats in Nigeria.
NAN also reports that it was launched in 2014 by the Federal Government as a response to the abduction of over 200 school girls by Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno State.
“The objective of this exercise is to equip the participants with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively prevent and respond to security incidents in schools across the region.
“The capacity-building will expose the participants to templates, strategy and standards to work with for effective school protection.
“Gone are those days that we have kidnapping, ritualism, cultism in our schools.
“The team will be a rapid response squad equipped with necessary logistics and training, working through intelligence-gathering and constant schools patrol,” Adaralewa said.
Also speaking, the Commander of NSSRCC, Dr Tersoo Shaapera, said the concept of attack on education and its facilities involves cultism, bullying and kidnapping.
He said this was always helped by the schools’ poor location.
“What we are doing at the centre currently is to bring all stakeholders in the education system on board. Protection of schools is not the responsibility of the military, Police or NSCDC alone, but the responsibility of all.
“We are focusing on building human content into security through capacity-building. We are preparing officers to go and build trust between security agents and people at the community level.
“The community trust and close engagement will give security agencies an opportunity to get necessary information to work with.
“We are hoping to have the NSSRCC at state and local government levels because majority of the schools are at the grassroots,” Shaapera said.
On his part, the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, CP Adebola Hamzat, who was represented by ACP Ekanem Usen, called for more grassroots awareness of the initiative.
He said the Police in the state would continue to build on the existing synergy among security agencies in the state.
The General Officer Commanding (GOC), 2 Division of Nigerian Army, Maj.-Gen. Bamidele Alabi, called for a strategic mapping out of the areas of threat.
Alabi, who was represented by the Chief of Staff, Brig.-Gen. Beyidi Martins, said this should be complemented by what to do to reduce the level of risk in each school.
NAN reports that participants in the three-day capacity-building programme were drawn from the six states of the South-West geo-political zone.
