Two-Hundred and Fifteen police officers, from Deputy Superintendent to Chief Superintendent cadres, in Zone nine, are participating in a one-week “Incident commanders’ management course”, taking place in Umuahia.

The list of participants included fifty officers from each of the four states in the zone, namely Abia, Anambra, Imo ad Enugu.

Twenty-five other participants were drawn, five each, from the National Emergency Management Agency, Federal Road Safety Commission, Fire Service, Civil Defence and the Nigerian Army from the states in the zone.

Also, fifteen participants came from Zone nine headquarters, Umuahia.

Declaring the training opened, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris said the exercise was necessary to equip participants to respond positively to disasters and emergency situations.

Idris said during emergencies, “only people who are trained to manage emergency situations should be allowed to help victims of incidents, saying it was wrong for people without the requisite training to cluster at the scene of an incident.

He said incidents were natural with human existence and could occur in the sea, air, road as well as home, hence the need to train officers to be proactive on emergency management.

According to him, whenever it occurs, it becomes very important that these officers here are the first callers that are expected to man such incidents.

“Whenever there is fire, the police will be there clearing the place and making sure that unauthorized persons do not take advantage of the victims of the incident.

“The important thing is that police and other security agencies must work as a team, synergy must be our watch word.

“Without synergy we cannot achieve anything,” Idris said.

He said the training would help to analyse what role each agency is expected to play and how to plan better for action in handling incidents.

The police boss who spoke through Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone nine, Hosea Karma charged the participants to take advantage of the training and be equipped to enhance their performances during emergencies.

The training was organised by the Nigeria Police in conjunction with the British High Commission.