About 65 police officers have on Wednesday graduated from a security training programme conducted by the Turkish Police.

The training programme, on traffic management and security protection for VIP, was in preparation for the upcoming Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC ) Summit which The Gambia hosts in November 2019.

The training started on the 14 January involving police officers from the different departments of The Gambia police force.

Landing L.K. Bojang, deputy Commissioner of Police, said the training was timely and that it was part of The Gambia’s preparation for the OIC Summit. He added that a steering community was set up at the Ministry of Interior which involved all the security services.

“We had meetings at the ministry and based on that, we had collaboration with the OIC Secretariat; and we sent our needs to them because a need assessment was needed as far as the security forces were concerned.”

He said Turkey was one of the first countries to respond to provide capacity building to the country’s security forces.

Bojang said that the training would enhanced their policing strength.

“We would send words of gratitude to the OIC Secretariat for their commitment and tireless efforts in ensuring that the security arrangements are well coordinated.”

Turkish ambassador to The Gambia, Ismail Sefa Yuceer said that the Turkish Police for the past weeks had made sure that The Gambia Police had the capability to face all the challenges and threats that might confront them.

“A great number of officers in The Gambia Police Force have been trained in Turkey. Some of them had short term training while others participated in courses in the police academy as well as in the graduate programmes and undergraduate programmes.”