The Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Abdullahi Gana Muhammadu said the Corps have trained over 1500 Agro-Ranger personnel to protect the Agro-Allied investment in the country. He made this known while playing host to the Executive Governor of Niger State, His Excellency Abubakar Bello at the Corps headquarters in Abuja.
The Commandant General noted that the idea of establishing Agro-Ranger squad as part of the Corps assignment aside disaster management, regulation of the Private Guard Company and the protection of Critical Infrastructure & National Asset was muted by the Ministry of Agriculture and subsequently, the signing of the memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Interior supervising the Corps for the Corps to train and deploy her personnel to protect the Agro-Allied investment in line with the Federal government resolved in diversifying the economy from the oil sector to other sector of the economy.
The Commandant General reiterated that with the establishment of the Agro-Ranger squad there is relative peace in the country as the personnel deployed to states such as Borno, Oyo, Ogun among others with the support of the state government have been able to stem the tide of incessant crisis between the farmers and herders, cattle rustling and banditry.
In a swift reaction, His Excellency, Executive Governor of Niger State Abubakar Bello congratulated the Corps and the Commandant General for the feat attained so far and for her doggedness in pursuing her mandate without compromise.
The Governor stressed that he has worked closely with the Corps personnel for the past five years and has found it useful in the security architecture of the nation and most especially the arrest of pipeline vandals and illegal miners in the state.
He said, the Corps has worked towards making the nation safe and better, thereby stating that his greatest challenge used to be the issue of crisis between the farmers and herders which hitherto made the peasant farmers not to go to their farm as well as the issue of banditry and cattle rustling but today with the establishment of 30,000 hectares of grazing reserve and deployment of Agro Ranger personnel, it is now a thing of the past.
He stressed that, in spite the fact that there is no issue for now in the State, it is not enough for the government not to be proactive in thinking of security measure to be put in place against future occurrence noting that food security is not for livestock alone but also for farmers.
Therefore, he declared his readiness in partnering with the Corps in providing security for the grazing reserve and to give necessary logistics support needed to make the personnel of Agro Ranger personnel deployed to the grazing reserve to be comfortable so as to discharge their duties without hitches.
Gana on behalf of the Corps appreciated the Governor and the government of Niger State for the land given for the building of the state Command headquarters which is completed and to be commissioned soon; also, land for building barracks for the personnel which is on-going as well as the training school which is to serve as staff development centre.
DCC Emmanuel Okeh
CDPRO
