Dele Ogbodo in Abuja
The Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), on Tuesdaysaid government had concluded arrangements to tackle the menace of cattle rustling in some parts of the country with a ‘Special Force’ within the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
He made the disclosure when he received a delegation from the Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC) led by its Executive Secretary, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas (rtd), in Abuja.
He explained that he was already working in collaboration with his counterpart in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, in that direction.
Dambazzau said: “It is necessary to partner with the CCC in the area of strategic communication because this ministry is the hub of public safety and basically what we do here is to enhance the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
“For people who are abroad, their major source of information is the media. If they keep reading negative reports about crisis in any part of the country, they will not come and invest because the impression they would have is that Nigeria as a whole is not safe.
“We are working with the Ministry of Agriculture to create a special force in the civil defence that will protect agricultural investments and products”, he stated.
On the ongoing reclamation of some parts of North-east from Boko Haram, he said government is doing a lot of training for the police and the NSCDC in order to deploy them in all liberated areas.
According to him, the CCC has a lot to offer government in her peace-building efforts among the people especially with different religious leaning.
In a remark, Anas, thanked the minister for accepting to be part of the centre’s forthcoming seminar on crisis communication in Rivers State.
He stressed that the ministry has a strategic role in the security architecture of the country, considering that it superintends over the police and four paramilitary services.
