The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has called for a legislative framework to empower private licensed security personnel to bear arms.
Director General of the NIA, Ahmed Abubakar, made the call in Abuja while speaking at the 1st Nigerian Private Security Industry Summit. Abubakar, who was represented by Mr Ayuba Kadafar, said private licensed security companies should also be legally empowered to carry out VIP protection, private investigation, escort duties and use of bullet proof verse.
He further advocated that their uniforms should be standardised, adding that those to be engaged must be made to undergo drug test.
Declaring the summit open, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, disclosed that the federal government is taking steps to formally integrate licensed private security companies into the national security architecture.
Aregbesola, who was represented by his Senior Special Adviser on Strategy and Innovation, Prof. Ademola Adeyinka, solicited the support of private licensed companies in tracking fleeing inmates.
He said the ministry was working with Nigerian Correctional Service to provide them with details of the escapees.
The minster further tasks security companies on intelligence gathering and sharing with security agencies to help check kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery and other forms of criminalities. While acknowledging the strategic role private security industry play in reducing unemployment, the minister re-affirmed the commitment of the federal government towards reform especially in the area of training and assigning them role in the protection of critical infrastructure.
Also speaking, the Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ahmed Audi, harped on the need for operations of private guards to be intelligence driven so as to enhance their contribution to the safe school programme of the federal government.
He disclosed that vulnerability studies conducted by the NSCDC in 21,000 schools showed that 16,000 were porous.
The commandant-general tasked participants to critically x-ray the prevailing security challenges in the country and chat the way forward.
Earlier, President of the Association of Licensed Private Security Practitioners of Nigeria (ALPSPN), Barr. Wilson Esangbedo, identified lack of access to loan and multiple taxation as some of the challenges confronting the private subsector security sector.
Other stakeholders who spoke at the event including representatives of the Nigeria Police Force, Nigerian Correctional Service and Federal Road Safety Corps described security as every body’s business and urged people to always give information to security agencies to help nip crime in the bud.
