Accident Investigation Bureau has trained two hundred security personnel on management of crash sites, in order to protect evidence critical to accident investigation.

The two-day training held in Lagos, had security officers drawn from the Nigeria Police Force and the Federal Road Safety Corps.

The Bureau’s General Manager, Security and Safety, Olumide Osineye, stressed that “Air Disaster Management,” was an important part of accident investigation.

Osineye said another batch of two hundred security personnel would be trained in Abuja by top officials of the bureau and its partners from the United Kingdom next week.

He said security personnel were, in most cases, first responders to crash sites and must thus be given adequate training on how to manage the situation.

According to him, the training will enable the security agencies’ personnel to know and understand their roles in case of an accident.

Osineye said they would also be able to identify and appreciate the need for protection and preservation of evidence vital to aircraft accident investigation.

Osineye said this was not the first time AIB would be organising such a workshop for security personnel, recalling that the bureau recently organised training for some police officers in the country.

“Now, we are going beyond that to include the road safety officials because we know the FRSC too plays a role when accident occurs.

“These are field people. The education is important for us to do our job better. These people will have been on site before we get there.

“So, it is important for us to make them aware of this. We need to appreciate them in helping us to do our investigation,” he said.

The general manager also lauded the Commissioner of AIB, Akin Olateru for ensuring security personnel in the country were trained on air accident disaster management.

Osineye said the feedback received from the previous training programmes were encouraging, stressing that this would also add to the knowledge of the personnel.