The National Safe School Response Coordination Centre (NSSRCC) says the reluctance by state governments to set up control centres is a major reason for poor surveillance and protection of schools across the country.
The NSSRCC Commander, Emmanuel Ocheja, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
Ocheja said that since the establishment of the NSSRCC, the Federal Government had appealed to state governments to key into the safe school initiative by establishing control centres at the state level.
While appreciating the few states that had keyed into the initiative, Ocheja urged states yet to be part of the programme to set up response centres for proper monitoring, protection and prompt emergency response.
“With the command and control centres in states, it would be easier for us to interface with state operatives and monitor from NSSRCC headquarter here in Abuja.”
He said with such control centres in the state, it would be easy to monitor schools and detect any likely attacks by bandits or kidnappers some kilometres away for urgent response.
“The moment they are sighted, all signals will be sent to the appropriate security agencies for effective and prompt response,” he said.
He disclosed that NSSRCC situated within the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) headquarters premises was not made up of only men of the corps but of operatives from major security agencies in Nigeria.
“We have representatives of the Police, Military and other agencies here; they come on a daily basis to monitor activities out there.
“So, if we have these centres which will be under the purview of the state governments, that will go a long way in tackling the issue of insecurity in schools,” he said.
The Commander added that the centre remained committed to the safety of students and schools by working round the clock with key stakeholders and providing physical security.
In a separate interaction with the NSCDC Commandant-General (CG), Ahmed Audi, he said that over the years the corps had taken active steps to ensure the attacks on schools across the country was brought to the barest minimum.
He recalled that since inception, the corps had thwarted over 48 attempts of school attacks and kidnapping of students nationwide.
“Except recently when we experienced a resurgence of these attacks but we are still interrogating and investigating to find out what went wrong in the sector but we will continue to deploy personnel to ensure safety while carrying out proactive measures,” Audi said.
