The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Police Affairs, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, 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 Crime Bureau (NCB) in Nigeria, AIG Stanley Udeh, at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, recently.
The Ministry of Police Affairs, Deputy Director, Press, Bolaji Kazeem, in a press statement in Abuja, disclosed that: “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.”
Sani-Gwarzo also stated the ministers were championing quick completion of the projects and have 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 (NPF) will function effectively and efficiently to deliver quality service to Nigerians,” he stressed.
According to the permanent secretary, “We do not need to wait for the United Nations (UN) 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 NPF to have the capacity to do that.”
He pointed out that as the data centre facility was 50 per cent completed and 100 per cent equipment purchased, there was need for the physical structure development to go along with the mobilisation of sister agencies, just as NPF was interfacing with for the manpower training.
Earlier, AIG Udeh stated that the National Criminal Data Centre and National Crime and Incident Data Base centre were progressing under the supervision of the ministry.
He stressed the need to have a functional centralised Criminal Data Centre to harmonise pockets of data among sister agencies.
The head INTERPOL NCB said the office was 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.
He noted that what was needed was to set up a committee that would promote inter-agency 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.”
