The Federal Government has approved funds for the procurement of intelligence gathering equipment and gunboats for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
The equipment will be deployed in states for surveillance and operations, it was gathered on Friday.
Disclosing this to journalists during the Commandant-General Conference at the NSCDC headquarters, Abuja, the NSCDC CG, Dr Ahmed Audi, who declined to disclose the cost of the equipment, said the hardware would further strengthen the agency’s capability to gather intelligence which would be shared with other security outfits to address the insecurity across the country.
With the current wave of insecurity in the country, Audi stressed the need for the corps to upscale and improve its intelligence gathering mechanism and information sharing.
The CG also admonished state commandants to focus attention on intelligence gathering, noting that some of them were not doing enough in this regard.
He said, “We all know the place of credible and actionable intelligence in proactively addressing security threats, hence the need to improve on your performance in the area of prompt and timely submission of intelligence is very imperative.
“To this end, the management is taking measures towards improving the skill and capacity of the corps by collaborating effectively with relevant stakeholders, sister agencies, and relevant government agencies as well as international organisations to assist in training and capacity development of the corps personnel particularly in the area of surveillance and intelligence gathering to further improve on the competencies and proactiveness of the corps personnel.”
“The Federal Government has approved the purchase of sophisticated intelligence equipment for deployment in states. The government has also released money for gunboats for surveillance and operations,” the CG revealed.
According to him, the brazenness and boldness with which criminal elements now carry out their lawless and nefarious activities should re-awaken the sensibilities of security personnel to rise up to their responsibilities.
The acting ACG, Critical Infrastructure, Bassey Bassey, explained that the state commandants had been directed to carry out a threat analysis on the public infrastructure located in their states and submit their reports to the corps headquarters.
