By AbdulRaheem Aodu
Kaduna
The National Emergency Management Agency has partnered with the Nigerian military to train military and paramilitary agencies on how to ensure that the 2015 general elections is peaceful and violence free and to quickly nip in the bud any attempt to cause rancour before, during and after the elections.
It is in view of this that NEMA organised a five-day Simulation Exercise on Electoral Violence tagged “Ingantachen Tsaro” which kicked off yesterday at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC) Jaji, Kaduna state.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the Exercise, the Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Muhammad Sani-Sidi, said the exercise was aimed at honing the skills, responses and preparedness of the military and other security agencies to civil crisis that may arise during the polls.
Sidi, who was represented by the agency’s Director of Training, Engr. Daniel Gambo, said “the idea is to sharpen the responder’s level of preparedness to sharpen their skills to civil crisis whenever the need arises. It involved officials of rescue agencies, the military and paramilitary agencies.”
NEMA said it assembled majority of its stakeholders to map out blueprint towards a violence-free election exercise in the country.
“The present reality and the tension that has emanated from the electioneering campaign activities among the political parties have convincingly suggested the dire need to brace up our collective preparedness towards managing all forms of possible crisis/violence and the likely displacement of innocent Nigerians that could arise from the electoral contest.”
The Commandant, AFCSC Jaji, Air Vice Marshall John Ifemeje, in his comments said the exercise was to train the participants on the planning, preparations and conduct of operations aimed at restoring normalcy during elections.
He urged the participants to take the training seriously in order to achieve the desired objectives.