By Victoria Onyisi
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Police Affairs has reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to complete the National Data Fusion Centre (NCDFC) to enable the security agencies to interface and share information to curb the activities of the criminals in the country.
He stated this during a meeting with the Head (INTERPOL, National Central Bureau, in Nigeria, AIG Stanley Udeh at the Ministry Headquarters in Abuja recently.
The Permanent Secretary said that 18 ongoing projects are interrelated. Once they are completed, it enhances the capacity of the security agencies to solve numerous crimes; law enforcement; pool of criminal data, and effective interagency collaboration.
Dr. Sani-Gwarzo said the Honourable Ministers are championing quick completion of the projects and directed that any gaps identified should be corrected to ensure the effective implementation of the Ministry’s key result area of the technological transformation. With what we are doing now, I am optimistic that the Nigeria Police Force will function effectively and efficiently to deliver quality service to Nigerians. He stressed.
In his words, : We do not need to wait for the United Nations to provide us data on criminal activities in our domain. We need to do more to profile and document criminals in the country and the Ministry is ready to support the Nigeria Police Force to have the capacity to do that.
He pointed out that as the data centre facility is 50% completed and 100% equipment purchased, there is the need for physical structure development to go along with the mobilization of sister agencies NPF is interfacing with for the manpower training.
Earlier, the Head (of INTERPOL, National Crime Bureau), AIG Stanley Udeh pointed out that the National Criminal Data Centre and National Crime and Incident Data Base centre are progressing under the supervision of the Ministry and stressed the need to have a functional centralized Criminal Data Centre to harmonized pockets of data among sister agencies.
He said is office is a national entity that liaises and fulfills a role in the international police operation by liaising with both local police and international law enforcement agencies adding that what is needed now is to set up a committee that will promote interagency understanding in the development of the centre.
In his words, “The essence of Interpol is to support global law enforcement operations. The Interpol activities extend to a jurisdiction with no diplomatic relations and the interaction is such that law enforcement should not be hindered by military, political, religious or commercial issues”.
