The acting inspector-general of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, has launched the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) manual for Schools Protection Squad (SPS) and organised a workshop on the safe schools initiative for strategic police managers.
This follows the recent establishment of Schools Protection Squad, a high-profile special unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for the protection of schools and educational institutions across the country.
Speaking at the function, the IGP enumerated some of the strategies to be employed by the NPF in the achievement of the mandate of the School Protection Squad to include the generation of information and development of intelligence, community policing partnerships, police-public cooperation, inter-agency collaboration, security and administration of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), deployment of logistic assets, humanitarian services, as well as training for school managers/teachers and members of the host communities on their roles in emergency situations.
The inspector-general of Police, while noting that the initiative will commence with 18 pilot States, which are more vulnerable, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), assured that the Police will diligently undertake the responsibility of safeguarding educational institutions against potential harms and threats, and urged all stakeholders to support the Federal Government, the Police, and other partners for the achievement of the initiative.
Also speaking at the function in Abuja on Wednesday, the deputy inspector-general of Police in charge of Operations, DIG Adeleke Adeyinka, said the Standard Operating Procedure manual is a comprehensive document that provides clear guidelines for the smooth operationalisation of the Schools Protection Squad.
He also said it spells out the organisational framework of the unit, procedures for mobilisation and code of conduct for officers assigned to the unit as it equally provides procedures for collaboration with other security agencies to ensure a coordinated approach in tackling threats to schools and educational institutions.