From; Madu Ezonoha, Enugu
Former Inspector-General of Police (IGP) , Dr. Solomon Arase has stressed the need for the establishment of effective information and technology (ICT) units in every security formations in Nigeria, especially the police.
The former IGP stated that whereas ICT has made crime more dynamic, super dynamic police officers are required to beat the criminals.
Arase also called for a new legislation or amendment of extant laws to make installation of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras compulsory components for approval of public and commercial buildings in Nigeria.
Speaking in a paper he presented during a sensitization workshop for law enforcement agencies on Telecommunications issues, organized in Enugu on Wednesday by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Arase stated that the deployment of CCTV and other ICT tools would help in detection and prevention of crime in the country as they have done in other developed nations.
The former IGP stated that ICT knowledge does not depend on rank, advocating that officers with a good knowledge of ICT should be fished out and properly deployed while new ICT – compliant officers should be
recruited to enhance prevention and detection in modern ICT society where crimes have gone dynamic.
He said it was the effective use of the ICT that helped the police apprehend the suspected Fulani herdsmen that attacked Nimbo community in Enugu state in 2016, as well as the kidnappers of former Secretary to Government of the Federation and elder statesman, Chief Olu Falae, seven of whom he said have been convicted recently.
“While ICT has assisted in dealing with security issues, it has also compounded security too because the criminals, the oraganised crimes we are dealing with, those guys are also very conversant with ICT, so you must be a dynamic security agent to be ahead of them because they
keep on deploying it. I’m sure you read about two or three days ago how they said North Korean people were trying to hack into our banks, it’s an international crime, organized crime and it is trans-national; so you must be able to have the wherewithal, the intellectual depth to be able to deal with the issues,” he said.
In a keynote address, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Kpokum Idris, who was represented by the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 9, with headquarters at
Umuahia, Abia state, Mr. Hosea Hassan Karma, stated that security agencies must think afresh and acquire new skills and knowledge from the workshop, and chart a new course in the enforcement of the laws and other extant regulatory instruments designed to beat all forms of criminality.
Earlier in a welcome address, the Executive Vice Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, stated that the objective of the workshop being organized for security agencies
and para-military officers in the six geo-political zones of the country, was intended to find common solution to cyber crimes, outright theft of telecommunication equipment as well as vandalism of telecommunication installations, facilities and infrastructure.
He said that the Commission had alongside security agencies carried out raids of criminal clusters to mop up pre-registered SIM cards, but it wants to go beyond that to design more effective strategies to beat every instance of violation of the laws, and ensure anyone who was arrested in this regard was successfully prosecuted.
