Nigeria’s Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun has called on West African police chiefs to collaborate and devise innovative ways to tackle the complex security challenges facing the ECOWAS bloc.

Mr Egbetokun spoke at a meeting of the West African Police Chiefs Committee (WAPCCO) technical sub-committee on training and operations in Abuja.

He said West Africa had, in recent times, been confronted with complex national security challenges, which had been accentuating transnational crimes.

“The activities of these cybercriminals have imposed on us all the additional burden of developing our national security capacity to dominate cyberspace and deny criminals the liberty to operate in our overriding national and regional security interests.

“The differences in legal frameworks and legislative systems continue to hinder effective law enforcement operations and criminal justice delivery initiatives among member states.

“Our security reality continually deepens the need to commit to regional collaboration, towards dissecting the pattern and trend of crimes on the one hand, and towards pulling together and supporting each other in bridging our national security gaps,” he said.

According to him, these challenges have been posing significant threats to the national security order of member states and regional peace and social-economic profile.

Mr Egbetokun enumerated such crimes to include traditional crimes of stealing, cross-border robberies, human goods, drug trafficking, small arms and light weapons smuggling, banditry, and terrorism, as well as other non-state actors.

He further said that cybercrime and cyber-enabled crimes were now emerging as bigger challenges to the subregion’s security.

The IGP said a critical hindrance to effective regional law enforcement operations and criminal justice delivery initiatives was the differences in legal frameworks and legislative systems among member states.

“The situation calls for a collective review of the multivarious legal framework that regulates law enforcement and the criminal justice delivery system.

“It also calls for a stronger operational partnership that will encourage the evolution of workable protocols that will engender stronger operational integration amongst security forces and border management agencies within the subregion,” Mr Egbetokun said.

Also speaking, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Abdel-Fatah Musah, said the fast evolution of information technology had further sophisticated the platforms and tactics used by criminal networks against targets.

Represented by Abdourahmane Dieng, the permanent secretary of WAPCCO, Mr Musah said crime and criminality continued to pose a big threat to lives and property in the subregion, creating an unconditional environment for meaningful development.

The commissioner said security and law enforcement agents in the region had for so many years focused on territorial, aerial and maritime borders as key points for close surveillance against crime.

“Therefore, our mandate is to increase our capacity in the fight against transnational border crime of all forms, which includes employing training and operational strategies.

“The illicit traffic and proliferation of small arms and light weapons, human smuggling activities, armed robbery, illicit migration, child trafficking and labour, kidnapping, abduction, and maritime piracy are but a few of the main highlights trending in our region,” Mr Musah said.

He, therefore, urged the participants to share, inform, exchange and discuss issues and activities surrounding training and operations in their respective member states to come up with joint strategies for security personnel’s training and operations.

The director, Interpol Regional Bureau, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Paule Ouedrago, said the transnational dimension of the crimes required collaboration between countries, adding that the regional office would support the efforts through international police cooperation. 

(NAN)