Rivers State Police Commissioner, Olatunji Disu, has promised residents of the state that there will be no more incidents of accidental discharge.
Disu spoke at the Arms Handling and Musketry competition held at the Counter-Terrorism Unit(CTU) Training School in Nonwa, Tai Local Government Area of the state.
He said the training was in line with the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun’s vision to train and retrain officers for efficient service delivery.
The CP said the programme scheduled for three weeks, would have operatives trained in arms handling and musketry.
He said: “We are here to witness the training that has been going on for the past three weeks. The officers have been here to do what they have been doing annually to brush our professionalism, which is arms training and arms handling. Today we have concluded the training exercise.
“Arms handling is one of the most important aspects of policing because it has to do with life and death. During this this training, we taught them safety and control; and how they should handle their firearms. Our firearms are important tools of our trade, so we will ensure that we train our officers again and again.”
Disu said the operatives were taught the most important law of firearms handling contained in the Fourth Order 237.
He said: “Most importantly, we need to build trust between us and the community, those we are protecting know that we are proficient with the firearms that we are carrying. We do not want people running away from us because we are carrying firearms. We want them to know that we have been trained to handle their firearms.
“We also want to reduce that recurring language of accidental discharges. I can assure you that with the level of training the officers have undergone for the past three weeks, that will be a thing of the past.”
Disu, while reacting to the condition of the training school, expressed optimism that the IGP would revamp all police training schools across the country.
According to him, the IGP had said again and again, that he had the intention of repairing all police training institutes, saying “and I have had a visitation from the IGP who had been here to see what we have here and has assured us that in the nearest future, this place will be put to better use.”
