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IG orders special security for health officers

 by Adelani Adepegba, Abuja 

 

The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, has ordered special security for all health officers involved in immunisation and other special medical tasks in the country.

Abubakar directed all Commissioners of Police and zonal Assistant Inspectors-General of Police, especially those in northern states, to devise “customised” security strategies to ensure that there was no further attack on health workers in the country.

The directive came following the killing of nine health workers in Kano State last Friday.

A statement by the Deputy Force Public Relations, Frank Mba, in Abuja on Sunday, assured Nigerian and expatriate medical personnel in the country that the police would ensure their safety.

Mba said the police had begun an investigation into the attack on the workers and assured the citizens that the perpetrators would be brought to book soon.

He said, “Command CPs and Zonal AIGs, especially those covering the northern states have been directed to devise customised and tailor-to-suite security strategies to ensure that no further attack on innocent health workers occur.”

Meanwhile, stakeholders have called for an extension of the mandate of the National Emergency Management Agency to strengthen its roles in disaster management.

Consequently, the stakeholders have through a Technical Working Group identified areas in the NEMA Act that required the amendment in a draft bill due for presentation to the National Assembly.

Speaking at a workshop in Abuja on Saturday, facilitator of the group, Prof. Muhammed Ladan, of Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said the focus of the proposed amendment was to expand the powers of NEMA to include lead coordination in the management of all types of disasters and all phases of internal displacement in the country.

Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Justice, Dr. Ali Ahmad said the issue of internal displacement had become a major concern due to the increasing frequency of disasters.

Ahmad noted, “Although the plights of internally displaced persons is common knowledge to national authorities in Nigeria, unfortunately the national response is generally constrained by lack of comprehensive legal and policy frameworks, technical, human, material and financial capacity.”

He added that NEMA should be legally empowered to handle the issues of the IDPs because of its efficiency and strategic position in the management of disasters in the country.