Workshop on chemical weapon protection begins in Abuja today

Spurred by the need to have a functional national protection programme in Nigeria, the Federal Government has initiated a workshop on assistance and protection against chemical weapons to begin in Abuja today.

The workshop is organised by the Political and Economic Affairs Department in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) in conjunction with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Hague, Netherlands.

According to a statement issued by the Director (Press) in the OSGF, Bolaji Adebiyi, participants for the five-day workshop were drawn from both the public and private sector in the country.

He said the workshop would focus on issues “that seek to identify toxic threats and hazards, support the development of national chemical risk assessment reports, identify gaps based on the audit of country’s current capabilities and identify standards to be achieved in assistance and protection and finally assist in the development of a counter-chemical threat capability as basis for a national protection programme.”

Stakeholders in the different sectors have expressed concerns with the rising wave of toxic threats and the associated hazards, as well as near absence of an urbanised report on threat appraisal.