Speaking in an exclusive interview with Saturday PUNCH, Kebbe said the newly recruited security personnel would undergo extensive training covering arms handling, community relations, intelligence gathering and various warfare tactics.
He said the training would also include ambush operations, mental health assessments, and other physical evaluations to ensure there are no incidences of accidental discharge or misdemeanours or the security guards becoming a danger to society.
He said, “There is always that fear; you know we are a human organisation in which there are always bad eggs no matter how hard you try in your selection process.
“Having that in mind, we have taken some measures to ensure that as far as we can, we minimise that kind of situation. We will ensure that once they are not on any operation, all their weapons will be kept at a particular point which is the various Divisional Police offices in their local governments.
“ Once they are going out for operations, they will be issued with this weapon under the command and control of the military. So with these steps, we are taking, I believe we will be able to minimise such incidences from arising.”
Highlighting the importance of continuous training, Kebbe said, “Also, training takes a very important role in any operation, so the government is making arrangements to ensure that these people are having adequate and continuous training in all ramifications, so it will not just be these two months of training that they will do on arms handling, but the training will be a comprehensive one, like community relations, intelligence gathering, and various warfare training, probably ambush operations among others.
“We hope that the various people who will give them a talk like some religious leaders talk to them about the religious aspect of this operation, we will involve a psychologist who will also address issues and assess some mental issues that might be associated with some of them, that is apart from the health and other physical assessment because we don’t want to give someone with psychology issue a weapon to handle; it may be a danger to himself and other people around him.
“So, we are looking into all these problems to make sure that by the grace of God, we minimise to the lowest possible level, incidences of accidental discharge or misdemeanours of people becoming a danger to society and things like that.”
