The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has strengthened its partnership with the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) to tackle cybercrime and related offences in the city.
The FCT Police Commissioner, CP Tunji Disu, during a courtesy visit to the NPF-NCCC on Wednesday, called for improved collaboration and capacity building for its operatives for effective policing.
As the first Police Commissioner to visit the newly commissioned centre, particularly for educational and training purposes, CP Disu acknowledged that learning the rudiments of cyber security will further inform their approach to duty.
Receiving the management of the FCT Command, the Director, NPF-NCCC, CP Uche Henry appreciated their presence emphasing the collective collaboration of state actors to fight cybercrime.
CP Henry noted that equipping officers with relevant skill in cyber security will ensure the appropriate approach in analysing digital crime scenes.
Quoting him, “I commend you for this bold step because you are the first Commissioner of Police that is officially visiting this place to come and learn and see what we have on ground.
“Also to enable us to define areas that we can work together, to make sure we improve on the services to help our people.
“So, I’m very appreciative of this and I know that this will be sustained. We are going to agree on a number of issues, which includes training, because we have lots of capacity and capabilities.
“If frontline officers visit a digital crime scene, there are certain things that the officer or the frontline officer needs to do because digital crime scenes are not like the normal crime scene.
“There are a lot of things that you need to observe and that is why we’re here; to make sure that we train our frontline officers on the fundamentals of cybercrime investigation, so that they will be able to meet up with the current challenges that we have around.”
Speaking to NewsNGR after the meeting, CP Disu recalled the impacts of the NPF-NCCC in the operation that led to the arrest of 130 foreign nationals allegedly exploiting the nation’s cyber space to perpetrate crime.
“Taking on such crime of this nature, I cannot have this centre in my area of jurisdiction and not visit,” Disu said.
He added, “Basically, we have come here today for education, and we have been educated. We have had agreement with the director of this institution for him to generally embark in the training of our men, and tactical team.
“I am surprised at the great personnel and equipment they have here. We are happy and looking forward to the commencement of this training. For example, listening to them today, I agreed that the digital crime scene is different from the traditional crime scene
“The world is changing, crimes are becoming more apparent, and as crimes are growing, the security operatives should be ahead of it. I have met officers with wealth of experience here and I can’t wait for them to triple them to our command.”
On his part, CP Henry called on all government institutions, parastatals and private organisations to prioritise and utilise the expertise of the NPF-NCCC to enhance their cyber security, thus preventing all kinds of malicious infiltration in the nation’s cyber ecosystem.
According to the World Cybercrime Index, Nigeria is ranked among the top countries for cyber threat, along with Russia, Ukraine, China, and the United States.
The report has, however, been refuted by the NPF-NCCC, whose director told NewsNGR that foreign nationals utilise the nation’s cyber space for all kinds of cyber fraud credited to Nigeria.