From Joseph Inokotong, Abuja

The Ministry of Interior has said that in order to overcome some of the challenges militating against optimal provision of internal security in the country, it has resolved to seek an amendment of the Police Trust Fund Act to encompass other internal security agencies in the country.

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola said that the provision of the Police Trust Fund Act holds so many potentials in resolving most of the security challenges in Nigeria. He stated this while highlighting the successes of his ministry and agencies under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, when he received participants of Senior Executive Course 43 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS), Kuru, in Abuja.

He added that the objective of the Act, which was recently signed into law by President Buhari, came into force on June 14, 2019 and was to provide a legal framework for the management and control of a special intervention fund for training and retraining of personnel of the Nigeria Police Force and also for the provision of state-of-the-art security equipment and other related facilities for the enhancement of skills of the officers of the Nigeria Police Force.

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In a statement issued Friday by Towoju Raphael, the minister urged participants of the Senior Executive Course 43, to support the initiative to include the Ministry of Interior, which has the mandate of providing internal security for all in the Trust Fund.

He stressed that it would be an overkill for the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), the Federal Fire Service (FSS) and Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) which are key actors in providing internal security to create a separate Trust Funds of their own, in order to effectively achieve the ministry’s mandate.

The minister disclosed the resolve of the ministry and its agencies to strengthen NSCDC, in order to reposition it to become an elite corps that will ensure internal security. He hinted that a manpower audit of officers and men of the corps to enable them carry out their task is being put in place to identify gaps both in number, skills and competence.