The Nigerian Police Force, have announced that the training of operatives of the new police unit, Special Weapon Tactical Team (SWAT) will begin today, Monday, October 19th, 2020.
The Inspector-General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, made this announcement in a statement released on Sunday, October 18th.
Adamu assured Nigerians that no personnel of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) will be a member the new police team (SWAT).
According to him, those to be absorbed into the new police unit are young, smart, and energetic officers with at least seven-year work experience and clean service records with no pending disciplinary matters and no record of violation of rights of citizens or misuse of firearms.
The statement reads,
The IGP reiterates that no personnel of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) will be a member the new Tactical Team. He notes that the officers selected for the training are young, smart and energetic officers who have acquired not less than seven (7) years working experience with clean service records – no pending disciplinary matters, no record of violation of rights of citizens or misuse of firearms – and are physically fit to withstand the rigour of SWAT Training and Operations.
The selected officers shall be subjected to physical fitness test, medical and toxicology screening etc and those found to be unsuitable shall be discharged.
The ICRC, an independent International human rights and humanitarian support organization with over 71years of experience in humanitarian services and institutional support and development, will provide resource persons and materials to handle the human rights components of the training program.
Specifically, they will handle topics touching on humanitarian laws, police conduct in conflict situation, human rights standard especially in the use of force and firearms, arrest and detention amongst others.
Other areas of the training program will include modern-day police ethics and values, Intelligence-led policing, Operation planning/Tactical decision-making processes, Hostage rescue tactics and operation, weapon handling, first aid/basic life-saving skills, stress/fear management, police-citizens relations and emotional intelligence etc.
The training modules will be handled by other carefully selected development partners, security experts as well as veterans from the civil society and human rights community.
