Abuja’s School Safety Reinforced With New Police Protection Squad

Ahead of school resumption next Monday, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police command yesterday launched School Protection Squad to avert attacks on private and public schools in the six area councils of Abuja.

FCT Police Commissioner Benneth Igweh announced this while declaring open the ongoing police strategic stakeholders’ forum on security of schools in the FCT and training of the schools protection squad at the Nigeria Police Resource Centre in Abuja.

Igweh said the training, with the theme: Strengthening Security Resilience and Integration of Host Communities in the Protection of Education, organised to prepare police personnel for the protection of students/pupils and teachers as well as secure schools in the FCT.

He said: “Security and safety of students and teachers have gained significant attention from government at all levels, following incessant attacks on schools which have created panic in the minds of teachers, students and parents. The act has led to the closure of schools.

“The command has mapped out all schools in the territory to ensure their adequate safety and protection. The command has not recorded any attack on schools. The command is committed to sustaining efforts towards the safety of the schools, especially in the rural areas.”

The Federal Government, in the efforts to reduce the number of out-of-school children, formally launched the Safe School Protection (SSP) initiatives programme in 2022.

Also, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of Operations, Ede Ayuba, stressed that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) remained committed to preventing attacks on schools across the country, hence the establishment of SSP the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun in all states of the federation and the FCT.

Ayuba said this was aimed at complementing the efforts of the Federal Government to achieve a safer and secure school environment across the country.

He said: “Today’s programme is a follow-up to similar events held in Kaduna and Niger states May 8 and 9 as well as May 14 and 15. They witnessed massive participation and were equally successful. I have no doubt that we will achieve more participation of relevant stakeholders in the FCT…

“The forum is, amongst others, geared towards fostering effective partnership between the Nigeria Police, sister security agencies, and other relevant stakeholders in preventing attacks on schools.”