By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA: The Federal Government through its Office for Strategic Preparedness and Resilience OSPRE has trained selected local government areas in Benue state on early warning and response to conflicts and disasters.

Established in 2022 under ECOWAS Instruments, OSPRE is also known as the National Centre for the Coordination of Early Warning and Response Mechanisms.

The office is mandated to promote a culture of preparedness and resilience in Nigeria’s strategic institutions, communities, and public life.

OSPRE Programme Manager, Hafsah Matazu, in a statement in Abuja said the training tagged, “Safety, Peace and Resilience in Communities SPARCS” was aimed at strengthening early warning, response and resilience capacities.

Matazau quoted OSPRE Director-General, Mr Chris Ngwodo as saying that the SPARCS workshop was an offshoot of the Concord Initiative, the agency’s flagship peacebuilding programme.

Nwodo said the participants were trained on early warning, emergency preparedness, response and resilience, gender security as well as data gathering and analysis.

The DG stressed that it was a demonstration of the Federal Government’s commitment to promoting sustainable peace at the grassroots and President Bola Tinubu’s determination to strengthening local governance.

He thanked Neem Foundation and the Integrated Security Fund for their support and pledged OSPRE’s continued partnership with local and state governments and stakeholders at the sub-national level.

Some participants and partners in SPARCS commended the organisers and called for further engagement to consolidate the gains of the programme.

Director, Centre for Peace and Development Studies at the Benue State University, Dr John Tsuwa, lauded OSPRE for championing the cause of early warning and response.

Tsuwa stated that the office had led a decisive and comprehensive strategy in mobilising critical stakeholders in early warning to identify, report, and engage community challenges.

The programme manager explained that OSPRE provided selected cohorts in the LGAs with training manuals, computers, mobile phones, flashlights, whistles, and digital data-gathering tools.

She said the workshops were conducted in Oju and Vandeikya LGAs of Benue of Benue.

Matazu stated that similar training was also conducted in Awka South and Idemili North LGAs of Anambra.

Participants were drawn from the local government secretariats, community vigilance groups, federal and state security outfits as well as women and youth groups.