Fed Govt to send foreign security experts packing

A NEW regulation is coming to flush out expatriates operating
private security outfits in the country, the Federal Government has
said.

Such expatriates, it was learnt, are being suspected of aiding
insurgency and criminalities.

Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Commandant
General Abdullahi Gana Muhammadu stated these in Kaduna at the
weekend during the Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers
parley organised by the Kaduna Chapter of Association of Licenced
Private Security Practitioners of Nigeria (ALPSPN).

The NSCDC boss, who was represented at the event by the
Assistant Commandant General PGC, Helen Amakiri, said the new
regulation’s document is being designed to address the lacuna in
the 1986 Private Guard Companies (PGC) Act, which he said has
become so obsolete.

Muhammadu said: “Luckily, Section 35 of that Act empowers the
Minister of Interior to make regulations. So, as the regulator of
the industry, we asked the permission of the minister, which is the
chief regulator, to formulate regulations that will address all the
lacuna in the Act; and that we have done.

“So, we have an up-to-date document called ‘Private Security
Regulations 2018’ that can be used to regulate the industry and
upgrade it to where we want it to be. It has been gazetted by the
Federal Government press.

“The regulation is going to stamp illegal operators and even
foreign operators. The PGC Act says, no foreigner should own
private security company in Nigeria. But the regulation has gone
further to say that, no foreigner should own, be a director or
operative of private security company in Nigeria.

“So, we don’t want foreigners in private security industry in
Nigeria. The reason is that, we have been receiving intelligence
reports that these foreign operators and directors aid and abet
terrorism and insurgency, as well as militancy, especially in the
Niger Delta and Northeast of Nigeria.”

The Commandant General, however, asked the private security
operators to be ready to upgrade their practices and follow the
guidelines.

ALPSPN National President Dr. Davidson Akhimien asked the
Federal Government to employ their service in
intelligence-gathering to address the various security challenges
confronting the country.

Akhimien, who was represented by the association’s vice
president, Emilia Chasa, noted that security in Nigeria has become
a burning issue.

The private security operators, he said, can assist in the area
of intelligence-gathering, as they have their men in every nook and
cranny of the country.

On his part, the Kaduna State Chapter Chairman, Dauda Zuye-Nda
Ageni called on the relevant regulators of the ALPSPN to help in
adequately addressing challenges of multiple taxation and quackery
in the system.