BY FOLASHADE KEHINDE
THE Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has arrested 50 arms-bearing herdsmen in different parts of the country.
The NSCDC said the illegally armed men were arrested in Ekiti, Ondo, Cross River states, and other parts of the country.
This was disclosed by the Commandant-General, NSCDC, Ahmed Audi, on Wednesday, in Abuja, while presenting licences to private guard operators.
“We arrested 50 illegally armed herdsmen and realised that some of them are into cattle rustling and kidnapping,” he declared.
He said the arrest of the armed herdsmen, which came shortly after he assumed office, stressed his determination to reposition the corps for optimal delivery on its core mandate.
“It is part of our mandate to settle disputes between herdsmen and farmers and to also give some security protection to our agro-allied investments,” he said.
According to him, there is a need for synergy between security agencies.
Nigeria’s security challenges could only be addressed substantially through intelligence sharing, he added, urging the private guard operators to ensure valuable contributions to ongoing efforts at checking rising insecurity.
The Commandant lamented current security challenges, saying they were asymmetric in nature.
He said the situation would be addressed once relevant stakeholders adopted unity of purpose as their main objective.
“The nation is bedevilled with a very serious insecurity crisis, and that is the asymmetric warfare. If you want to deal decisively with this, you must synergise with all stakeholders in terms of credible intelligence,’’ he noted.
He warned the private guard operators that their licences would be withdrawn if they engaged in unethical practice.
