The need to have its personnel become proficient and effective in personal weapon usage and minimize incidents of misuse of arms has motivated the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Oyo State Command, to train 1,520 officers on firearms handling.
The NSCDC is saddled with the responsibility of protecting critical infrastructure including prosecuting war against pipeline vandalism.
In order to better secure government property, the Oyo State Commandant of NSCDC, Mr. John Adewoye, said on Saturday in Ibadan that 1,300 officers were trained on how to handle firearms in 2016, while additional 220 were trained in 2017, bringing the total number to 1,520.
He said the reason for the training on the use of firearms was to enable the officers become proactive and scientific in handling crime in the country.
“NSCDC needs to be updated so that at any point in time, the corps would not be found wanting in the task of preventing crime in the state,” the commandant said.
“With this training, the corps will be able to deploy more officers to the pipeline right of way to ensure that no single pipeline is vandalised in the state.
“Let me tell you, for the past one and a half years, no single incident of pipeline vanadalism had been recorded.
“Our mandate is to safeguard critical property of federal, state and local government, like steel and mining site, pipeline, electrical cable, water cable and anything provided by the government for the citizenry,” he reiterated.