The European Union through its ECOWAS commission partners and the leadership Initiative for Trañsformation and Empowerment has organised capacity training for Nigeria military, police and paramilitary agencies.

The training programme is aimed at equipping the operatives with modern methods and strategies of border management (air, land and sea) as well as strategies for collaborative policing and information sharing.

Speaking at the event held at Emjim hostels, Uyo Akwa Ibom State, the executive director of the programme Hon. Joel Bisina, in his opening remarks, said the programme was in response to concerns about poor security at the borders, which has contributed to the influx of small arms and light weapons used by non-state actors to terrorise the country.

“This training will enable the security officers to manage more effectively and efficiently the borders where they work and stem the flow of small arms and light weapons.”

The training he said was the second leg of capacity building training on Border Management and Security targeted at Security and Law Enforcement Agencies in Nigeria, adding that the first stream was held earlier in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria between September and November 2020.

Bisina who facilitated the training on behalf of Lite Africa noted that the training was organised as one of the key components of the European Union’s programme of assistance to the Government of Nigeria via the ECOWAS Commission known as the Management of Small Arms and Light Weapons in Nigeria or the ECOWAS/EU Small Arms Project.

The initiative, which is mainly a “Pilot Community Weapons Collection Programme”, is an initiative of the ECOWAS Commission, funded by the European Union under the “EU support to ECOWAS Peace, Security and Stability Mandate within the broader context of “Disarmament and Community Development” or ‘Weapons for Development”.

The Nigerian Component of this initiative is being implemented by the Presidential Committee on Small Arms & Light Weapons ,PRESCOM, and the Leadership Initiative for Transformation and Empowerment (LITE-Africa).

The participants commended Lite Africa for the training, promising to apply the knowledge gained in their security works.

At the end of the training, Border Security Agencies were equipped with skills on effective Communication Strategy for awareness creation and sensitisation of rural/border communities; strategy for Confidence Building and Synergy between Security Agencies and Border Communities; Interpersonal relationship between border security agencies and host communities among others