Nigerian Government launches integrated anti-terrorism project

Nigerian Government launches integrated anti-terrorism project

As the wave of terrorism sweeps across Nigeria, government, on Tuesday, launched a project that will facilitate internal coordination and information-sharing among law enforcement agencies to combat the crime.

The launching of the project came just as Italy concluded the training of 340 Nigerian security agents on counter-terrorism.

The Training

A breakdown presented by the Italian ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Roberto Colamine, in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, showed that the 340 officers include 20 officers in charge of border control who were trained by Italian financial police in charge of border control; 20 police officers trained by Italian civil police and 300 trained by Italian military police.

The training, according to him, was part of Italy's contribution to the anti-terrorism efforts in Nigeria.

Speaking during the launching ceremony, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, said Nigeria now had an operational office supervised by a counter- terrorism coordinator with the mandate to ensure coherence in the activities of relevant security stakeholders in the country.

Collaboration

The minister said that for over three years, Nigeria had been working closely with the Counter- Terrorism Implementation Task Force on the I-ACT project.

He said the task force team had visited Nigeria on several occasions and were able to develop a comprehensive mapping and gaps analysis with relevant officials from in country.

The analysis, according to him, led to the identification of three project proposals to address identified challenges in the security sector.

NP/Adekusibe/Cokey