The Commandant General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Dr. Ade Abolurin in x-raying the achievements, performances and activities of the Corps in 2013, reiterates that the Corps has been able to justify its existence by tactically and efficiently executing her mandate as required of it.
While wishing Nigerians peaceful and joyful celebration during the yuletide season, he seeks for the collaboration and partnership of all stakeholders and the populace in the protection of the Critical Infrastructure and National Assets of Government.
He stated that the dividends of democracy can only be felt if all and sundry join hands together to ensure that criminals and saboteurs are not given the opportunity to exhibit their nefarious activities during the festive period and beyond,notingthat vandals and other criminal activities are being perpetrated during festive periods believing that security agents are presupposed to be on break.
However, Abolurin states that the Corps is not mindful of the tactics adopted by these enemies of the state; therefore, it has put in place all necessary machineries to guide against such ugly occurrences.
Furthermore, it is pertinent to state that as citizens, it is our right and obligation to ensure safety of the public infrastructure which is of mutual benefit to all, considering that the cost of replacement of vandalized infrastructure brings about setback in the economic development of the Nation.
In view of the above, the Corps in the year under review has justified her existence by making significant and appreciable contribution towards the reduction of vandalism of critical infrastructure and National Assets as well as in other areas that are of the Corps’ mandate.
In the year under review, the Corps has successfully carried out several anti-vandalism operations through its tactical and strategic efforts by using its security architecture and apparatus in curbing activities of vandals, criminals and Saboteurs of the Nation’s National Assets and Critical Infrastructure such as pipeline vandalism, illegal oil bunkering activities, illegal oil refineries, Power, Telecommunication, Railways, Water facilities, criminals with concomitant arrests, prosecutions and convictions of the criminals.
The Corps has made substantial arrests at the various sectors, therefore, over 1,590 oil related criminal suspects were arrested of which 1,549 of the suspects are undergoing prosecution, while 44 have been successfully convicted by the court of law. 813 illegal oil refineries were destroyed while items recovered include: 241 trucks, 148 vehicles, 52 motorcycles, 15,051 drums of AGO, 33 vessels loaded with crude oil, 1,271 boots, 12,532 kegs of AGO, 92 barges loaded with crude and 1,056 tanks loaded with PMS
However, a total number of 176 criminal suspects were arrested by the Corps in relation to PHCN facilities, Railway installation, Telecommunication and water infrastructure vandalism while 156 suspects are undergoing prosecution and 20 have been successfully convicted. The items recovered from the criminal by men of the NSCDC include transmission cables, PHCN Amoured cables, water pipes, metal cables, 4 cable wire of transformer.
The Corps through its specialized units such as CRBN, SWAT, Special Force, Disaster Management, Counter Terrorism, Anti-Fraud, Anti-Vandal Squad, Surveillance Team and undercover agents, Peace and Conflict Resolution among others have been able to carried out other operations such as Quick Response, Rescue and Disaster Management operation, the Corps has nabbed fraudulent and criminal elements, clamp down on kidnappers, baby factories and illegal traffickers as well as terrorists and cyber criminals to mention but a few.
The Corps through its Sport unit has won a total of 691 medals for both the country and NSCDC comprising of 322 gold, 217 silver and 152 bronze. Most recently, the Corps in the 2013 commonwealth weight lifting championship held in Penang Malaysia won 8 medals for the country consisting of 6 gold, 2 silver medals.
The Private Guards Company Unit have stem the tide in clamping and stamping out illegal Private Security Companies while sensitizing and sanitizing the Private Security Companies through its monitoring and regulatory efforts.
At this juncture, it is crucial to state here that other security agencies have quantumly benefited from the collaborations and synergy of the Corps through intelligent sharing, information gathering, strategic operations and tactical efforts in stamping out all forms of crime and criminality in the country.
Also, as a grassroot base security agency of government, the Corps as the regulator of Private Guards Industry has repositioned the sector to serve not only as a revenue base for the federal Government through licensing and renewal of license, but serve as an apparatus of the regular security body of Government charged with the responsibility of getting privilege information that could help in nibbing at the bud acts that are capable of manning the smooth running of the Government.
On this note, the Corps wish to say that, come 2014, whatever is the shortfall, there will be greater improvement and it is the desire of the Corps to stamp out completely every act of vandalism and criminality; therefore all criminal minded persons are advised in their own interest to relocate from Nigeria to wherever they felt is convenient for them.
We wish all Nigerians and those residing within the country a prosperous new year and urging them to live in peace and collaborate with the Corps in fighting against illicit acts, vandalism and all forms of criminality as the law of the federation is no respecter of anyone, says Abolurin.
CSC Okeh Emmanuel O
CDPRO
