At opening of refresher course: Police boss prescribes discipline for trainees to acquire expertise to tackle threats.

He made the call Monday in Yaounde. This was during the opening of a refresher course to reinforce the capacities of the trainees on how to maintain law and order.

The one-week refresher course, powered by the government of the Kingdom of Spain, is taking place at the National Advanced Police School of Yaounde.

Some 100 police officers are being drilled on maintaining law and order in the country. 

According to the representative of the Spanish national police force, the course on the maintenance of public order will consist of a total of 28 hours.

The course, the official explained, will mostly consist of practical sessions. During these sessions, they will discuss how to develop strategies, during sporting events such as football matches. A UEFA Champions League match with Real Madrid will serve as an example.

“The training will also include how the phenomenon of anti-terrorism operates and at the end we will insist on how we develop this program and its daily training,” the official said. 

Speaking at the start of the refresher course, the DGSN boss thanked the Kingdom of Spain for reinforcing the capacity of law enforcement officers.

Mbarga Nguele also expressed gratitude to the European nation for the constant and multifaceted support that the national security has benefited from within the framework of their security cooperation since 2015.

According to Mbarga Nguele, over the last few decades, police officers in the country have regularly benefited from training courses both at home and in Spain.

This, he detailed, has been in the fields of counterterrorism, cybercrime, technical and scientific policing, intervention techniques, law enforcement, fight against drugs and illegal migration.

The police boss said that the refresher course, aims to improve the professional capacity of the officers by acquiring new practical knowledge, as well as modern techniques for establishing public order.

Mbarga Nguele emphasised that maintaining law and order is a fundamental mission of internal security.

Enhanced policing training, he added, is more necessary than managing policing situations, and a significant indicator of police respect for human rights.

“…the preservation and restoration of public order must strike the right balance between the protection of citizens' institutions and public freedoms,” Mbarga Nguele said. 

He went further to state that: “As a major player in internal security, police officers must master to the highest degree the techniques and practices of maintaining law and order, in order to carry out their fundamental mission effectively and appropriately”.

According to Mbarga Nguele, the course is taking place at a time when the country is facing many security challenges. He urged trainees selected for these sessions to show proof of discipline and responsibility.

He stressed that these are qualities to assimilate perfectly the essentials that will be dispensed to them during this training. 

Enter Ambassador of Spain

Speaking earlier, Ambassador of Spain to Cameroon, H.E Ignacio Garcia Lumbreras, said the course coincides with the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the national police corpse in Spain.

The diplomat explained that the objective is to consolidate areas of security, freedom and justice.

According to the Spanish diplomat, the course is not a one-way exercise. He said both countries were going to learn from each other because both have common challenges and situations.

He said the trainers will try to convey how the Spanish police work in such scenarios and adapt to situations that change in minutes and seconds. The ambassador announced that there will be two sessions. The second, he said, will take place in November.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3267 of Tuesday October 22, 2024