In a bid to step up effective border patrol and counter-terrorism operations, about 1,000 personnel of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) have been trained in Karate martial arts for self defence during unarmed combat.
“We want our officers to be able to protect not only themselves but officers that work with them from other agencies, I told them in my address that wherever you are, you should be a trainer, train other officers from other agencies,” said David Parradang, Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI), who was conferred with honourary Black Belt at a three-day event organised by the NIS Shotokan Karate-Do Club in Abuja.
Speaking after the award of black belt, Parradang said the karate training is in line with his vision of ensuring that every Immigration officer is exposed to the type of unarmed self defence technique that is suitable for policing the nation’s porous borders.
He described the training of the officers in karate as very important, saying that was why the service has taken it very seriously, with the first set of 1,000-man on unarmed combat launched about a month ago.
Leading by example, Parradang vowed “to go through all the courses to defend the black belt I am wearing. I feel truly honoured, very important.”
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