The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Olatunji Rilwan Disu, has advocated for a unified West African approach to combat criminal activities in the region.
He made this appeal on Monday while chairing the 11th Meeting of Heads of INTERPOL National Central Bureaus, NCBs, for West Africa in Abuja.
According to DAILY POST, the assembly convened NCB leaders from sixteen West African countries, along with senior officials from the INTERPOL General Secretariat and regional security organisations.
The IGP emphasised that human trafficking rings, arms traffickers, drug cartels, cyber criminals, money laundering operations, terrorist financiers, and violent extremist factions all share a common trait: they function without respect for national boundaries.
He stressed that the success of the region relies not on the efforts of any individual nation, but rather on the promptness and effectiveness of collaborations established among all sixteen member countries.
Regarding Nigeria’s contributions, IGP Disu highlighted tangible measures already in progress, which include the expansion of INTERPOL’s I-24/7 secure communication network to border control points and law enforcement agencies nationwide, ensuring that officers at land crossings have the same real-time access to vital intelligence as those at headquarters.
He reiterated Nigeria’s dedication to Project GEMINI — the systematic uploading and verification of INTERPOL’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database — and cited the West African Police Information System (WAPIS) as a testament to what can be achieved through purposeful regional data integration.
Looking forward, he pledged Nigeria’s commitment to three key priorities: guaranteeing universal access to INTERPOL’s essential databases across West African border infrastructure; establishing coordination mechanisms that facilitate joint actions within hours rather than weeks; and fostering trust and transparency among NCBs to enable effective information-sharing. He noted that without such trust, even the most advanced systems will be inadequate.
