[size=14pt]Jonathan Approves Arms for Civil Defense Personnel[/size]
Abdulkadir Badsha Mukhtar
3 August 2011

President Goodluck Jonathan has given approval to men and officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps to carry arms, Interior Minister Comrade Abba Moro disclosed yesterday.

The minister announced the president's approval yesterday while on a familiarity visit to both the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp (NSCDC) and the Federal Fire Service headquarters in Abuja.

Addressing the elated crowd of officers and men of Civil Defense Corps, the minister said, "the Federal Government and Mr. President has approved that you carry arms."

The minister, who did not disclose specifically when the Corps will start carrying arms, stated that the approval was in consideration of the danger which the Corps members are exposed to and the risks they take in tackling issues that have to do with national security.

In his speech, the NSCDC Commandant General, Professor Ade Abolurin, said the first batch of 500 personnel of the Corps, who will form the nucleus of the Civil Defense Armed Squad, are undergoing three-month intensive training in arms and weapon handling at the Prison Armed Squad College, Owerri, in Imo State.

He said another 200 senior officers and 400 junior officers which include drivers and orderlies have commenced lights arms (pistol) handling in Prison Staff College and Training School, Kaduna.

While at Nigerian Fire Service, the minister also promised to enhance the service in every possible way for an efficient and effective discharge of its responsibilities.

He said in the "next three weeks" the committee for restructuring the Nigerian Fire Service will be inaugurated, adding that the service everywhere across the world is seen as "part of our lives" as means for providing enabling environment.

~Bluetooth:

Police go oppress these people die.

Laguna:

Citizens of Nigeria are allowed to own pistols, right? Or is their government like Communist China and nanny state Britain?

Beaf:

I pray that this is the first signal of the dismantling of our useless police force and rebalancing of federal character representation in the military.

texazzpete:

This is the most stooopid thing i've heard all day. And people here are actually in support of this? Have we not learnt our lessons yet?

Even the better trained (and likely better paid) police corps are a menace on the roads thanks to their weaponry. Now you want to arm the folks and set them loose on the general public?

Utterly brainless move.

afam4eva:

Also allow Nurtw to carry guns then we are finished in this country.

texazzpete:

Even Man 'o' War go batshit crazy when they are given whips and the tacit authority to flog people they think they can get away with flogging.

Now you want to arm these poorly trained folk with live weapons. Does that make any sense at all?

It's a Nigerian thing. When you make a man stand in the hot sun while he watches his mates zoom past him in expensive cars, homicidal rage starts building up.

afam4eva:

Also allow Nurtw to carry guns then we are finished in this country.

Beaf:

Homicidal rage? Damn!
Sir, why are you so scared like you're up to no good?

texazzpete:

The nursing mother shot by a Police office over a mild dispute with a taxi driver, was she up to no good too?
The Igbo traders and their girlfriend that were shot by the Police, were they up to no good?
The Schlumberger staff that slumped and died after being sprayed (in front of his daughter) with teargas by cops in Rivers state, was he up to no good too?


Perhaps you'd say the people of Odi were up to no good too.