By Hassan Zaggi
Senior Police Officers from the West African countries of Ghana, Liberia and the Gambia have been granted slots for training at the prestigious National Institute of Police Studies (NIPS), Abuja.
This is even as apart from the 10 participants that graduated from the just concluded training, 10 more senior officers are being expected from Sierra Leon to attain the next batch of training.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba Alkali, disclosed this at the Graduation Ceremony of the Strategic Leadership and Command Course (SLCC) 3/2021, of the National Institute of Police Studies (NIPS, in Abuja, yesterday.
Represented by the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of ICT, David Folowiyo, IGP Baba revealed that plans have been concluded to expand the scope of attendance in the Institute.
“We are getting to fully attain the vision and mission of the Institute.
“We are admitting the vision of the ECOWAS sub-region and the plan of the African region.
“We are expanding the scope of attendance in the Institute. We are expecting another set of 10 participants from the Republic of Sierra Leone for the next course.
“We are even expecting more officers from the West African Sub-region from Ghana, Gambia and Liberia. NIPS has come to stay,” he said.
The IGP, however, commended the Ministry of Police Affairs for its support over the years since the inception of the Institute.
He further appealed to members of the National Assembly to continue to support the institute by providing the needed funding for it to fulfil its mandate.
Speaking earlier, the Inspector General of Sierra Leone Police, Dr Ambrose Michael Sovula, applauded IGP Baba Alkali for the friendship and the provision of the slots to officers from Sierra Leone to attend the course at the Institute.
He recalled that Nigeria has, over the years, played a big brother role to his country, insisting that the relationship will continue to grow.
It would be recalled that prior to the graduation ceremony, the IGP Usman Alkali Baba signed a Cooperation Agreement with his Sierra Leonean counterpart, Dr Ambrose Michael Sovula at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
The Agreement was signed in a bilateral policing engagement, targeted at deepening and consolidating relationship between the NPF and the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) in core areas of policing such as manpower development, intelligence sharing, tackling regional and transnational threats and crimes, amongst others.
