By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Abdullahi Mohammed Gana, has disclosed that his agency would be targeting the recruitment of at least 100, 000 able-bodied Nigerians to beef up its workforce in line with the growing demands to secure the critical infrastructures of government across the country.
Gana disclosed this yesterday in Abuja shortly after he decorated newly ten promoted Assistant Comptrollers-General (ACGs), adding that the recruitment had become necessary to meet up with the request for its personnel running into several thousands from the ministries of Defence, Agriculture, Solid Mineral, among others.
He said: “We have made request to the government that for us to meet up with these requirements, we will need to beef up our personnel and we are looking at the possibility of recruiting 100, 000.
“We are facing more and more challenges on daily basis. Just some months ago, we had a meeting with the federal ministry of Solid Minerals where the Minister said that they would be requiring a 5, 000-man squad in line with the government decision to diversify the economy.
“The minister, Dr Kayode Fayemi, had during the meeting insisted that my men must be trained and retrained to understand the modus operandi of the sector especially on the identification of solid mineral very well. Today, we have set up Solid Mineral unit in the corps.”
Continuing, he said: “After that the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audi Ogbeh, has also approached us to request for a 3, 000-man squad to hold in checking the activities of the Fulani herdsmen and manning the 5, 000 ranches the ministry intend to establish in the country. He later demanded for an additional 3, 000 men.
“We have also held meeting with the Minister of Defence, who requested that we prepare and deploy about 3300 of our men to the North East where the military have dislodged the Boko Haram insurgence to secure the civilians.
“The same thing with the MD of the Nigeria Railway Corporation has also requested the deployment of 3, 000 men to their 22 installations accords the country since the sector has been classified among the critical infrastructure of government.
“The same request came from the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and essentially from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) requesting the deployment of our men to secure the dams in the country following the threat from Boko Haram to poison the source of our drinking water.”
