NAN-H-8
Crimes
By Mustapha Sumaila
Abuja, Oct. 8, 2017 (NAN) The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has called for synergy among law enforcement agencies to combat organised crimes in the country.
The UNODC outgoing Country Representative, Ms Cristina Albertin, made the call when she appeared as a guest at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
NAN reports that UNODC deals in organised crimes like drug, child and human trafficking, smuggling of fire arms, economic crimes, money laundering, corruption and terrorism based on UN conventions and protocols.
Albertin said national agencies like the police, Nigeria Immigration Service, NAPTIP, Nigeria Customs Service and NDLEA must work together to tackle organised crimes.
“The big limitation we observed in this country is that national law agencies are not working together as they should; each agency can’t work in isolation.
“In human trafficking for instance, the different agencies charged with responsibilities like immigration, police and judges must work together.
“There must be cooperation between investigators, prosecutors and judges.
“They must work together and ensure they are on the same page, ” she said.
She said since the creation of UNODC office in Nigeria in 1997, it had created a platform to discuss with major stakeholders on challenges of each of the professionals with a view to addressing them.
The outgoing country representative urged all law enforcement agencies in the country to improve in coordination and cooperation to tackle all organised crimes in the country.
Albertin pledged that her organisation would continue to offer technical capacity building to major stakeholders to deal with organised crimes within its mandate as stipulated in UN conventions.
She noted that capacity building for all the major players was germane as many of them claim not to be familiar with UN conventions and national laws on organised crimes.
“The officers and men of these agencies need training and we have to also realise that one crime does not come alone and each organised crime like money laundering involves another crime.
“It is difficult these days for a crime to be perpetuated without the use of internet; and that is cyber crime and with all this, things become much more complex.
“You don’t expect a police officer who may have been trained 20 years ago on investigation of murder cases or theft to deal with the complex crimes we are talking about now.
“Institutions and legislations are here in Nigeria but what is needed is capacity building and that is what we have been working on in the last 10 years in the country,’’ she said (NAN)
MS/ASS/OJO
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(Edited by Mufutau Ojo)