The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has acknowledged improved crisis response across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government in dealing with terrorism and addressing chemical and biological threats.
The Director of the Presidential Crisis Communication Command and Control Centre (PC4), domiciled in ONSA, Rear Admiral Robert Obey, disclosed this yesterday while conducting a simulation exercise code name “Rapid Response 1”, at the Idu Train Station in Abuja.
The simulation exercise was designed to enhance the skills and preparedness of crisis management agencies to respond effectively to potential terror attacks in confined spaces.
Admiral Obeya expressed satisfaction with the steadily improving response times of the agencies with each successive simulation exercise.
“I will rate them seven over ten because at the beginning their response time was a bit slow but later it all picked up so based on that I am going to make recommendations of the sectorisation of the areas because right now all the security agencies are coming from their locations and barracks to this area and these distances might be too much but if we sectorised, we will now have troops in their sectors and any sector that is close by will now take charge of the operations while the remaining ones will come as backup. That will be one of the recommendations for the next exercise to improve on the response time,” he said.
Admiral Obeya stated that, so far, they have successfully fostered synergy among all security agencies in line with the National Crisis Management Doctrine, recognizing that no single agency can address terrorist threats alone.
“Previously, most of the agencies were operating on their own as there was no document to bring all of us together but since 2016, the National Crisis Management Doctrine was promulgated and it also used the whole of government approach where all Ministries, Departments and Agencies are brought together to train in times of crisis. If you observed today, you will see that all the agencies – Police, NCDC, NEMA, the Armed Forces are working together. So that is the synergy that we all wanted. We have always said that there is no agency that can do it alone,” he said.
In her remarks, the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mrs. Zubaida Umar, reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to providing swift responses, including first aid and evacuation services, in the event of a terror attack or natural disaster.
“What you have witnessed today is a simulation exercise whereby whenever there is an attack, we are able to come in and see how we can assist in terms of evacuation and mass casualties management. You have seen step-by-step reaction from all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies. We went through quite a number of types of disasters from biochemical disaster to the banditry that you witnessed and you saw the moment where NEMA stepped in to provide first aid and evacuation services,” she said.
The Rapid Response exercises covered a range of crisis scenarios, including health emergencies, hostage-taking, terrorism and banditry as well as chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) attacks.
