The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has urged Nigerians in need of licensed private security guards to consult it.
Head, NSCDC Licensing Unit for Private Guard Companies, Mr. Agboola Sunday, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
Sunday said that channeling requests through the Corps would guarantee engagement of genuine guards devoid of questionable characters.
He, however, said that failure to do so would amount to falling into the hands of unlicensed guards who engage in sharp practices because their activities are not monitored by the concerned authority.
He said that the NSCDC was charged with the responsibility to licence private security companies, and to ensure that the companies’ licences are current, and they are diligent in their services.
Sunday said in a bid to sanitise the system, the NSCDC had toured the states of the federation to monitor the activities of guards companies and fish out unlicensed ones.
He said that the corps was able to close more than 300 unlicensed private security companies recently.
“I advice members of the public who have need to protect their lives and property to engage private security guards whose licences are current.
“And if they want to employ anybody to do the job for them they can write to us so that we can give them companies that are up to dates,’’ he said.
Sunday classified licensing of private security companies into categories `A’ and `B’, adding that companies with 500 staff and more fall under `A’, while those with 500 employees and below falls under `B`.
He said that licence fee for category `A’ is one million Naira, while that of `B’ is N800,000, while both are subject to annual renewal charges of N200,000 and N100,000 respectively. (NAN)
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