Hot SourceFrancis Sardauna in Katsina
The Kukah Centre has announced plans to provide special security training for 200 members of the Katsina State Community Watch Corps to strengthen their operational guidelines and security at the grassroots in the state.
The training, which will be conducted by the Centre’s Improving Community Security Initiatives for Accountable Service Delivery project, will also enhance the corps’ capacity in protecting lives and property in the state.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ engagement in Katsina Tuesday, the Project Manager of Improving Community Security Initiatives for Accountable Service Delivery, Bamber Terseer, said the project is committed to ensuring sustainable and community-driven peace in the state.
The one-day engagement was supported by Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRiNG), an initiative of the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and implemented by Tetra-Tech International Development.
Terseer said the project, which is being implemented in Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Benue and Plateau States, aimed at strengthening the legal framework and operational guidelines of the state-owned security outfits.
He added that the Kukah Centre, through the project, would develop standard security operating procedures that could be used as a training guide for the 200 members of the Katsina Community Watch Corps for improved security in the state.
He said the Improving Community Security Initiatives for Accountable Service Delivery project would provide special security training for 1,000 members of the state-owned security outfits across the five benefiting states.
He said: “In Katsina, we are going to be training 200 personnel of the Katsina Community Watch Corps, bringing the total to 1,000 across the five states of Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Benue and Plateau.
“The training will focus on producing a more professionally inclined Katsina Community Watch Corps which will not only be responsive but will also take into account the contribution of communities in ensuring that peace is established and maintained in Katsina State.”
He noted that credible and fair election could not be achieved in an atmosphere of rancour, hence the centre’s unwavering commitment to restore peace in banditry-ravaged communities in the state.
Terseer, however, said the Kukah Centre operates within the five thematic areas of good governance, leadership development, interfaith dialogue, human right and memory preservation and knowledge promotion.
Earlier, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Dikko Umaru Radda on Banditry and Displaced Persons, Saidu Ibrahim, said the Kukah Centre initiative would complement the state government’s efforts in taming insecurity in the state.
