103 Military, Paramilitary Officers Trained On Counter Insurgency Operations
Adetokunbo Fakeye
In an effort to confront security challenges facing the country, a total of 103 officers of the Nigerian Military and 11 other security agencies have concluded a one month training exercise on internal security management, low intensity conflict and counter insurgency operations at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji, Kaduna State.
Commandant of the college, Air Vice Marshal John Chris Ifemeje while addressing the participants during their graduation on Friday, charged the participants to put into proper use the skills acquired during their training, as such knowledge will amount to waste if they fail to apply it in the conduct of counter-insurgency and internal security operations in the country.
According to AVM Ifemeje, it is in line with the college’s desire to make the training conform to contemporary security challenges, other courses apart from the usual crowd dispersal training were introduced during the training.
The exercise which commenced on April 8, was conducted in 5 main modules, including lecture on internal security environment and role of each security agency, as well as discussions on operational experiences of the Nigerian Armed Forces in the internal security operations.
The four weeks training afforded the Participants the opportunity to understand the imperatives of multi-agency cooperation in internal security and low intensity conflict management, information sharing and intelligence gathering to ensure prompt response to crises situations.
Giving the highlight of the training earlier, the Director of Joint Studies, Brigadier General Benjamin Ahanotu said, the design of the training was such that many decisions were left to the players with the aim of encouraging them to value the importance of joint consultation, sharing of information and freedom of action.
The 103 participants were drawn from the Nigerian Customs Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigerian Immigration Service, Federal Fire Service, Department of State Security Service, Defence Intelligence Agency, Nigeria Intelligence Agency and Federal Road Safety Commission.