(L-R) Prof. Jurgen Stock, Francis Rwego, Nigeria’s DIGP Jonathan Johnson and Michel Quill, the deputy director operation of EUROPOL
The European Police Organisation – EUROPOL – has pledged to support the newly created African Police body – AFRIPOL – to build its structures to effectively deal with emerging and challenging security threats.
Mr. Michel Quill, the Deputy Director Operations of EUROPOL made the pledge on the final day of the two-day third Sub-Saharan International Association of Chiefs of Police, Africa executive policing conference in Kigali held under the theme, “Contemporary policing for a safer world.”
“The creation of AFRIPOL is a very good idea. We are ready to support you fully to move quickly,” Mr. Michel said.
The formation of AFRIPOL, which is an idea fronted by Rwanda, was adopted by African Police Chiefs during their meeting in Algiers, Algeria held in February after merging two Police bodies – EAPCCO and Interpol.
The new continental Police body which awaits approval of Head of States was formed to strengthen cooperation between African Police forces to foil security threats like terrorism, human and drug trafficking and cybercrime.
Rwanda’s enthusiasm to unite regional and international Police forces towards common goal earned her a vote of confidence to host regional centres of excellence like the Police Senior Command and Staff College, Peace Support Operations Training Centre and motor-vehicle Mechanical Inspection Centre (MIC) and is the continental anti-gender-based violence secretariat (AFSOCCA-VAWG).
“For EUROPOL to be more effective, support from African Police forces is critical to combat organized crimes like human trafficking,” he added.
“Joint operations and cooperation to exchange data is important and EUROPOL is open to working with the world.”
Prof. Dr. Jurgen Stock, the vice President of Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) of German said cybercrime is major threat to security, which can only be addressed through cooperation among regional and international police organs.
“Terrorists use IT to communicate and disseminate their negative propaganda and technology is the solution for law enforcement agencies to effectively fight these threats,” Prof. Stock said.
He added: “The fast development of technology, therefore, requires us to cooperate in our regional and international frameworks to have enough technical equipment and experts for proper investigations.”
Jonathan Johnson, the Deputy Inspector General of Nigeria Police force said there are still loopholes in the legal instruments to promote inter-state cooperation on criminals and defence issues.
Jonathan also noted that states are still crippled by corruption, lack of data on criminals like fingerprints, passport numbers and names.
“Some countries are yet to sign important treaties and where they did, implementation is still weak. We need to harmonise our mutual legal assistance, extradition and transfer of criminals and invest in training, information exchange and capacity building to give no room for criminals and terrorists to roam in one country and harming others in a neighbouring state,” Jonathan explained.
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