IGP Ibrahim Idris says, ‘Outstanding cooperation among West African police services helps to nab Evans’

Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris has credited Evans (Chukwujeme Onwamadike), the suspected kidnapper’s kingpin to information sharing and intelligence collaboration between West Africa police services.

IGP said, “Information sharing is critical to tackling the menace of trans-border crimes in West Africa; it is through such exchange that we were able to nab a Ghanaian/Nigerian kidnapper two weeks ago, after evading arrest for many years,”.

Ibrahim Idris spoke in Accra, Ghana in a paper he titled: ''The role of Nigeria Police in national security and its contributions in West Africa”, a paper he delivered in an ongoing West Africa international security conference.

The paper was reportedly sent through email to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lafia. “For several years, Evans terrorized Nigerians and nationals of many countries across West Africa.

"Efforts at arresting him yielded no desired results until we spread our search net wider,” he said.

IGP, who solicited closer ties between security agencies in the sub-region, stressed on the need to improve the method of monitoring and surveillance, especially among border and coastal police units.

The IGP, Idris further called for improved communication capabilities among intelligence gathering outfits in West Africa, and called for mutual support to plug loopholes usually exploited by criminals.

He said that the Nigeria Police Force had 300,000 personnel in 127 area commands and 5303 divisions, adding that the force had consistently contributed to stability and peace in ECOWAS nations and under UN mandates.

 “The Nigeria Police Force trained 250 Liberian Police personnel in 2005 and has consistently offered training slots to police officers from Gambia and Sierra Leone at the Police Staff College, Jos and the Police Academy, Wudil.“We also trained 100 police officers from the Republic of Niger on mobile police combat in 1998.

He said: "At the end of the training, Nigeria donated trucks, riot equipment and tear smoke to the Nigerien government.

''Idris said that the Nigeria Police Force also helped to stabilise Guinea Bissau in 2012, when the military intervened in its leadership and truncated democracy.“Our police personnel remained there until democracy was restored in 2014."

The IGP expressed Nigeria’s readiness to consistently cooperate with police formations in other countries to track down criminals, pointing out that such mutual cooperation had become even more necessary as technology had reduced the world to a small village.