A retired Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr Desmond Agu, has warned against moves to convince the Federal Government to merge the corps with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
Agu, who until his retirement, was a commandant in six states, urged the Federal Government to shun any individual lobbying for such meger saying it would worsen the security challenges in the country.
Describing the security challenges as multifaceted, Agu said coordinated multiple approaches were needed to confront them, adding that the NSCDC has filled a significant part of the void.
He said it was obvious that persons seeking the merger were ignorant of the roles of NSCDC as a special purpose security vehicle.
He said NSCDC’s special roles of protecting and safeguarding critical national infrastructures and monitoring the activities of private security companies among others would be undermined by such a merger.
Agu recalled that the Federal Government’s white paper on the Orosonya Report recognised the special roles of NSCDC and called for strengthening the corps to enhance its performance as an independent entity instead of merging it with any other force.
The former NSCDC boss said: “We must kill the idea of merging the NSCDC with the Nigeria Police Force because doing so will worsen the security challenges in the country.
“NSCDC was created by the Constitution as a special vehicle to tackle unique and critical security challenges affecting mostly the national economy. The corps is designed to protect critical security infrastructures such as oil pipelines, electrical installations among others.
“It is important to note that any attempt to merge NSCDC with the police will blur these critical roles and slow down the ongoing recovery of the National economy. Those, who are promoting this idea for whatever reason should jettison it because it will not do the country any good.
“Since its establishment, NSCDC has been professionally discharging its responsibilities, building public confidence in its activities. What the corps needs is better financing to keep performing its critical roles and not this merger”.