The federal government has ordered the immediate dissolution of all Anti-vandal Squads of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) nationwide following allegations of misconduct and corruption against its officers
Announcing the dissolution as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday in Abuja, NSCDC commandant-general, Dr. Abubakar Ahmed Audi, who underlined the need for the Corps’ hard-earned integrity to be sustained, gave assurance that the anti-vandal units of the Corps would be reconstituted in due course.
He made the announcement at an emergency meeting with top management and all state commandants to review their performance and policies.
Audi, who threatened to use indicted officers as scapegoat to serve as a deterrent to other fraudulent personnel of the Corps, vowed to hand over anyone found wanting to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further action.
The commandant-general further said it was unfortunate and highly disgraceful for any officer of the law, who ought to be custodian of Integrity, truth and justice, to be seen negotiating and extorting money from the citizens they are meant to protect.
The NSCDC boss said, “Because there are insinuations that security agencies act as accomplices and because we want to redeem the image of the service due to reports received about our officers in the field, the federal government has directed that. that unit should be re-organised.
“We will be injecting fresh blood or fresh individuals. Those who have served, especially in the Niger Delta area, for six months to one year will be changed to halt compromise.
“As you already know, we set up various panels to investigate the various allegations of oil theft aided by our officers and we have received reports. For now, if you must reorganise a unit, you have to first and foremost dissolve the department to enable you to inject fresh blood.”
NSCDC has been the lead agency in the protection of critical assets and infrastructure of the government, such as oil and gas pipelines, telecom installations and other infrastructure.
The federal government recently gave marching orders to the Corps to wage full scale war against oil theft and illegal bunkering in the country.
Only recently, a viral CCTV video captured some personnel of the Corps allegedly extorting money from an independent petroleum marketer in Rivers State. The video came months after the Rivers State governor, Nyesome Wike, accused the anti-vandal unit of the Corps of operating illegal oil refineries and aiding and abetting other oil thieves as well.
Reacting to the video, the NSCDC boss had said, “Enough is enough. I will make scapegoats out of these bad elements within the system to serve as a deterrent to others like them if what is seen in that video is correct.
“I have given the investigative committee only one week to authenticate the video and submit their report which we shall act on with immediate alacrity.”
