The Federal Government says plans are underway to actively engage hunters and vigilantes in intelligence gathering to curb attacks on schools across the country.
National Coordinator, Financing Safe Schools Initiative, Mrs Halima Iliya, gave this indication in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
She said aggressive community engagements and sensitisation of students, parents and teachers would kick off in the second quarter of the year.
Iliya said as a component of the plan, for states with an organized and registered local vigilantes, hunters, vigilantes and volunteers will be trained while for states without registered vigilantes, the youths are likely going to be used.
She said youths will volunteer to protect their communities because nothing can be achieved within a community without their involvement.
The National Coordinator explained that the youth will be incorporated into the security architecture for them to defend and protect their communities in the areas of intelligence gathering, prevention and detection deterrent capabilities.
She added that her agency engaging would work with the National Orientation Agency to reach out to the grassroots, noting that the second phase of the implementation of the safe schools national plan is ready where all security agencies involved have trained their personnel on safe schooling.
Speaking on involving state governments in the initiative, Mrs Halima Iliya said the agency have also written to all states, including the FCT, to furnish us with information on the most-at-risk schools in the three senatorial zones and one tertiary institution.
On his part, the Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Dr Ahmed Audi, said the corps, being the lead agency in the protection of schools, was dedicated to ensuring that schools were adequately protected in collaboration with other security agencies.
He said that is why the three Cs – coordination, cooperation and collaboration – cannot be overemphasised as this has yielded results amongst security agencies in recent operations.
According to Audi, because the NSCDC regulates the operations of Private Guard Companies, they have been leveraged to contribute their quota to the security architecture of the country by providing intelligence reports.
The National Safe School Response Coordination Centre Commander, Hameed Abodunrin, said that the centre had engaged in continuous sensitisation of schools on the risks and dangers associated with not being security conscious.