The Police Service Commission (PSC) has reiterated its support for initiatives that prioritise the capacity building of police officers.
The Chairman of PSC, DIG Hashimu Argungu, who disclosed this, stressed the need for improved partnership with other agencies as part of efforts to tackle transnational crimes.
He made the remarks while speaking on a paper titled ‘Strenghtening Internal Security: A Path to Safer Nigeria’ during a 3-day workshop on INTERPOL organized by the Ministry of Police Affairs in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and National Central Bureau (NBC), Abuja.
Ikechukwu Ani, Head, Press and Public Relations of the Commission who made this known in a statement noted that Argungu acknowledged that the workshop would be of great assistance to the law enforcement agencies in the area of intelligence gathering, investigation and collection of electronic evidence of transnational organized crime and corruption.
He explained that security has taken a new dimension in this 21st century, stating that the challenges and threats are no longer primarily coming from the conventional (traditional) factors of the usual narrative of unemployment, poverty, out of school children, among others.
He highlighted social media as one of the key challenges and threats Nigeria is currently facing.
He emphasised that Nigeria’s present way of information and intelligence gathering “is already obsolete and ineffective in today’s digital world. The old regulations appear to be uncertain and also, it is becoming harder for the regulations to keep up with technology.”
“It is a known fact that in this modern time, international terrorists take the whole world as their field of operations,” he stated, adding that “police and law enforcement systems belong to particular nations” and thus are “confined within the borders of their respective countries.”
He noted that transnational offenders often exploit the legal tradition of sovereignty of nations, maintaining that national boundaries frequently provide them with an effective means for avoidance of the law or for escape.
He explained that INTERPOL as an international institution embodies the idea of multinational police cooperation against transnational criminal offences such as money laundering, drugs, illicit trafficking in arms, stolen art, bank and other forms of financial fraud such as white slavery, murder, robbery and counterfeiting.
The PSC Chairman mentioned that the National Police via INTERPOL serve as an alternative remedy to real and potential security challenges and threats.
He added: “We are confident that the outcomes of this workshop will translate into actionable policies, strengthened inter-agency synergy and a renewed public trust in our security institutions.
“As we embark on these deliberations, let us unite under a common vision: a Nigeria where every citizen thrives in safety and dignity; together we can turn this vision into reality.”
