By Sulayman Waan & Maria Lopes
Ebrima Bah, Deputy Inspector General of Police of The Gambia has said that the security forces is preparing and making requirement as well as other arrangements to ensure successful hosting of Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) lately 2019 in The Gambia.
“As part of my preparation process for the hosting of the OIC summit and conference later this year, the Ministry of Interior last year in June set up a Security Steering Committee.
This committee has representatives from all the Armed and Security services of the Gambia,” he said during the graduation of cross section of security personnel in OIC Security Training.
He added that : “Today about 483 trainees are graduating after weeks of intensive training on OIC Security .These participants were drawn from various security services includes the Gambia Police Force , Immigration Department , SIS ,Gambia Prisons Department ,DLEA, GRA, the Gambia Fire and Rescue Services as well as Gambia Civil Aviation Authority. This training is part of our preparation for the forthcoming OIC conference and summit to be hosted in the Gambia this year.”
According to him, to facilitate their task, other various sub committees were formed to look into specific safety and security requirements and arrangements for the successful hosting of the OIC summit.
The Deputy IGP said the general mandate of these security committees was to make technical, operational, and necessary assessments of all the requirements in terms of materials, equipment, logistics and human resources capacity to ensure peaceful OIC summit.
“The committees were also tasked to make recommendations for capacity building and conduct local trainings, that will bring us to witnessing the graduation of the first badges in public order management and VIP protection,” he said.
He disclosed that more training is planned and some of them will soon be commenced to ensure comprehensive preparation ahead of the international conference.
Bah commended the Minister of Interior for his foresight, leadership and guidance through the course of the training, saying that the formation of the committee is important and timely in considering the event’s magnitude.
The top security personnel said that what the committee has performed is young expectation, adding that the Security Forces are definitely ahead of time since the event security is concerned.
He expressed gratitude to the OIC secretariat and Security Steering Committee for their valuable support on the implementation of the training ahead of the international event as well as their partnership in facilitating the training.
Meanwhile, he thanked the participants for completing the training successfully without any setback. “I know the training was so difficult and challenging but you worked very hard to conclude it, I also thank the PIU commander and staff for hosting and facilitating this training,” he concluded.
