Dele Ogbodo in Abuja
The Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr. Abdullahi Gana, wednesday stated that the paramilitary agency would target the recruitment of 100,000 young graduates to beef up its workforce in line with the growing demands to secure the critical infrastructure of government across the country.
The NSCDC boss who made the disclosure after decorating 10 newly promoted officers to the rank of Assistant Commandant Generals (ACG) in Abuja, he said the recruitment has become necessary to meet up with the request for its personnel running into several thousands from the Ministries of Defence, Agriculture, Solid Mineral.
He said: “We are facing more and more challenges on daily basis. Just some months ago, we had a meeting with the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals where the minister said they would require a 5,000-man squad in line with the government decision to diversify the economy.
“The minister, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, had during the meeting insisted that my men must be trained and retrained to understand the modus operandi of the sector especially on the identification of solid mineral very well. Today, we have set up solid mineral unit in the corps.
“We have also held meeting with the Minister of Defence, who requested that we prepare and deploy about 3,300 of our men to the North-east where the military have dislodged the Boko Haram insurgence to secure the civilians.
“The same thing with the Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) has also requested the deployment of 3,000 men to their 22 installations accords the country since the sector has been classified among the critical infrastructure of government.
“The same request came from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and essentially from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) requesting the deployment of our men to secure the dams in the country following the threat from Boko Haram to poison the source of our drinking water.”
According to him, the newly promoted ACGs must understand the present security challenges facing the nation.
He said: “We want them to take charge of the railway commands it is a very big task. We have made request to the government that for us to meet up with these requirements, we will need to beef up our personnel and we are looking at the possibility of recruiting 100,000 workforce.”
