The Minister of Police Affairs, Sen. Ibrahim Gaidam has advised the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF) to intensify the training of police personnel for effective policing of the country.

A statement by Mr Bolaji Kazeem, the Deputy Director in charge of Press in the ministry on Wednesday in Abuja said the minister made the call while receiving briefing on the activities of the NPTF.

Gaidam urged the Executive Secretary of NPTF, Mr Abdullahi Bala to initiate programme for both local and international professional training for personnel of the Nigeria Police.

The minister said the idea was to equip the officers with the needed capacity to tackle terrorists, kidnappers and other criminal activities in the country.

He urged the the executive Secretary to ensure that the process of training officers was based on available funds.

“Instead of waiting to send 20 personnel abroad, you can send 10 that can be accommodated within available funds rather than to jettison crucial professional training abroad that will impact their output to the nation.

“We encourage you to come up with a strategic plan on sending personnel on training outside the country while continuing to patronise local training available in the country.

“We need to send some of our personnel outside Nigeria to get highly sophisticated training that will enable them tackle crimes in the country,” Gaidam said.