The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) will Monday commence training for officers attached to the new tactical team, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) set up to replace the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, in a press statement, Sunday in Abuja, said: “The Inspector General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu, has reaffirmed that the new Police tactical team will operate within very high professional and ethical standards, rule of law and dictates of best international policing practices.
“In pursuant of the above objectives, the NPF is partnering with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other Development Partners for the training of the Tactical Team which commences Monday, October 19, 2020 at the Police Mobile Force (PMF) Training School, Ila Oragun, Osun state and the PMF Training School, Ende Hills, Nasarawa state.”
According to Mba, “The IGP reiterates that no personnel of the defunct SARS will be a member the new tactical team.
“He notes that the officers selected for the training are young, smart and energetic officers who have acquired not less than seven year-working experience with clean service records, no pending disciplinary matters, no record of violation of rights of citizens or misuse of firearms and are physically fit to withstand the rigour of SWAT training and operations.
“The selected officers shall be subjected to physical fitness test, medical and toxicology screening etc and those found to be unsuitable shall be discharged.”
The spokesperson explained that the ICRC is an independent International human rights and humanitarian support organisation with over 71 years experience in humanitarian services and institutional support and development, would provide resource persons and materials to handle the human rights components of the training program.
“Specifically, they will handle topics touching on humanitarian laws, police conduct in conflict situation, human rights standard especially in the use of force and firearms, arrest and detention amongst others.
“Other areas of the training program will include modern-day police ethics and values, Intelligence-led policing, operation planning/tactical decision making processes, hostage rescue tactics and operation, weapon handling, first aid/basic life saving skills, stress/fear management, police-citizens relations and emotional intelligence etc.
“The training modules will be handled by other carefully selected development partners, security experts as well as veterans from the civil society and human rights community,” he noted.
