NSCDC sets up special squad for Bama

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has set up a special squad to boost security operations in Bama community of Borno.

Spokesman of the Corps, Mr Emmanuel Okeh, who disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, said the squad was codenamed Special Bama Squad (SBS).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Bama was declared an “Islamic Caliphate’’ by Boko Haram terrorists, who captured it along with Gwoza in 2014.

But Nigerian troops reclaimed the community in 2015, and reconstruction works are ongoing in areas destroyed by the terrorists.

Okeh stated that the Commandant-General (CG) of the NSCDC, Mr Abdullahi Gana, announced the squad while addressing members of management, and zonal and state commandants of the agency in Abuja.

He quoted the CG as saying that the move was in compliance with a recent directive by the Federal Government to security agencies to beef up their presence in the North-East.

The government, according to him, specifically directed the Army, NSCDC and the Police to provide 1,500 personnel each to Bama.

They were mandated to receive the Emir of Bama and other returning IDPs, in addition to providing adequate protection for the civil populace of the community.

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“The Special Bama Squad is an additional number of personnel who will carry out round-the-clock patrols in all the nooks and crannies of Bama community and its suburbs.

“They have been mandated to synergise with other security agencies in the Bama axis,’’ Gana said.