Interpol: Nigeria Setting Pace in Fight Against Cybercrime in Africa

The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), said the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC), is setting the pace in the fight against cybercrime in Africa. The Director Interpol Cybercrime Directorate Singapore, Craig Jones also noted that Nigeria is a leading county in Africa in terms of the fight against cybercrime.

Jones said this in Abuja during the official closing of the 2024 Cybersecurity Week at the ECOWAS Secretariat, Asokoro, Abuja on Thursday. Represented by the Head of Cybercrime Operation Desk, Interpol Global Complex for Innovation Singapore, Mohammed Isah, the director, emphasised the need for continued national and international collaboration to deny cyber criminals freedom of action in the digital environment.

According to him, “We cannot succeed in the fight against cybercrime in isolation. Either from the law enforcement side, from private sector or other relevant stakeholders. We have to work together. Working together could be from the operational side, capability and capacity side, Intel sharing side and in the aspect of capability, with utilization of tools and other things. These are area that pose a lot of challenges and Interpol has been working to see how we can address these areas. As some of you may also be aware, we have different initiative from Interpol cybercrime directorate. We have Africa joint operations against cybercrime which I am leading. We have been providing supports to member countries, having different initiative with relevant stakeholders in terms of cyber intelligence sharing, cybercrime collaboration and coordination of operations and we have different funding under cybercrime to provide tools in terms of developing capabilities to member countries”.

He assured that the international policing system will continue to work together with the 196 member states, including 13 other partners, share cyber intelligence, enhance capacity of the law enforcement, investigators and other relevant stakeholders that will support what they are doing.

On his part, The Director Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC), CP Uche Henry the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), are seeking improved legislation to tackle the menace of cybercrime in the country.

He said: “As you know there is no perfect document in terms of laws anywhere in the world. So we would continue to improve on our laws against cybercrime. I know that the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), is actually coordinating for us to bring input that can enable us come up with improved legal instrument that can actually back us up in terms of laws to be able to carry out our responsibility seamlessly and to protect victims of cybercrime. That is ongoing”.

On whether the centre had identified a specific provisions of the law that is obsolete and impeding prosecution of cyber criminals, he explained that there is a committe set up to look at the gaps in the existing laws.

According to him, “the committee is doing a great job and I believe that in no distant time they will come up with recommendations with regards to those gaps and of course the laws will be amended”.

He however expressed regret that some teenagers are getting involved in cybercrime activities. The CP stated that the centre have started its awareness creation to discourage teenagers involvement with the secondary school students.

“We have been able to talk to students from public and private schools. The whole idea is for us to educate and teach them not to get into cybercrime. In the nearest future, we are going to have engagement with students of higher institutions. So we are making plan to visit them and sensitise them,” CP Uche said.

The Director General/CEO, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC]), Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, applauded the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC), for their efforts in tackling cybercrime related activities such as identity theft, stating that they had been a great support to NIMC in tackling some of these crimes on the cyber space.

She said that Nigeria is a pacesetter in tackling cybercrime in Africa. Coker-Odusote said the security agencies had been able to resolve some kidnapping cases and that was what the fight against cybercrime is all about.

“What we are doing with sim card cannot be made public for security reasons but I can tell you that NCC and ONSA have a joint task team which also involved the centre to tackle sim card related crimes,” she concluded.

Earlier, the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC), held a cyber security walk in Abuja to sensitise citizens, particularly the youthful population on the dangers associated with cyber crimes. The police also promised to collaborate with other countries to combat the global crime.

Speaking to newsmen during the walk the Director, NPF-NCCC, CP Uche Henry said stated that there was hardly any crime committed now without the aid of digital device.

He said: “I can tell you clearly that the cyber criminals are not finding it easy with us, and that is how we discovered that most of them are relocating from Nigeria to neighboring West African countries, and it is because of the trouble that we’re giving them. They know that when it comes to fighting cybercrime, we don’t compromise at all. We give the fight our best, and we will continue to put in our best to make sure that we bring whosoever that decides to go into cybercrime to justice”.

The fight against cybercrime, he said requires collective responsibility, adding that everybody must come together to effectively tackle the high trend of cybercrime in the country.

While pledging to continue to fight cyber crime head-on, Henry disclosed that he returned from France few days ago where he had gone to discuss possible areas of collaboration with foreign colleagues.

He averred that during the walk, representatives from the British National Crime Agency participated in the walk, the UNODC representatives were also here, and other colleagues from embassies.

Uche concluded that cybercrime is a borderless crime, hence the need to collaborate with other jurisdiction to tackle it head on.

Linus Aleke

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