By Ahone Heidi
Municipal Council Police in Cameroon will hence be well trained, sound in character young men and women who will ensure some order within the different council areas in the country in a more dignified manner.
Government and council officials say this will put an end to the disorder and often barbaric behavior and confrontational scenes that hitherto characterized the functional method of the mostly handpicked city council police agents in different towns.
It is against this backdrop that the National Advanced School of Local Administration, NASLA, has begun the official training of council police to serve in different local councils in the country.
. The Minister of Decentralization and Local Development (MINDDEVEL) chaired the Double Ceremony of solemn start of the First Batch of training Municipal Police Officers and Commissioning of the Administrative and Educational Block of NASLA, JULY 10,2024 in Buea.
At the inaugural, the minister pointed out that the training is in line with President Paul Biya’s decision of August, 2022 laying down the need and conditions of training municipal police agents.
“ This training is part of a large reform at the local level aimed at regularizing municipal police services to better improve the maintenance of law and order in our cities,” the minister said.
The first batch of more than 95 municipal police officers took part in the inaugural lesson of the Minister of Decentralization and Local Development under the theme: “Municipal police: a pillar of local development and territorial cohesion.”
This marked the start of their training which will last three (03) months.
The training according to NASLA authorities will basically focus on modules such as: law and freedoms, techniques for writing fines and reports, not forgetting physical exercises throughout their training.
It should be recalled that the August 2022 reform spelt out clearly the role of Municipal Police in Cameroon which include among others, controlling traffic, clear streets from any obstacles, transporting, burial and exhuming of corpses, maintenance of order and decency in cemeteries, ensuring safety of edible food displayed on sale, implementing emergency protection strategies, control mentally deranged persons in cities, preventing stray animals for destroying property, help in the demolition of houses built without permit etc.
The Buea event was also the opportunity for Minister Georges ELANGA OBAM to officially open the new Administrative and Educational Block of NASLA.
It is a modern three-level building, with an architectural model , having two twin towers separated by communicating partitions, and which facilitate access to the different compartments of the building.
The inauguration ceremony took place in the presence of the administrative authorities of the South-West Region and many other guests.
