The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has following the arrest of Nigerian billionaire kidnap kingpin, Onwumadike Chukwudubem popularly known as Evans, revealed why the IRT led by Abba Kyari was able to arrest the criminal mastermind.
Speaking in Accra, Ghana, the IGP revealed that the arrest of the culprit came as part of information sharing and intelligence cooperation among police services in West Africa.
Ibrahim Idris while pointing out that the cooperation between the Ghanaian forces and the Nigerian Police led to the arrest of the criminal mastermind who revealed he has made over $7billion from the kidnapping trade noted that information sharing was crucial to tackling the menace of trans-border crimes in West Africa.
He said: “through such exchange that we were able to nab a Ghanaian/Nigerian kidnapper two weeks ago, after evading arrest for many years.”
The IGP, Idris while delivering a paper titled, “The role of Nigeria Police in national security and its contributions in West Africa,” at the ongoing West Africa international security conference said: “For several years, Evans terrorised Nigerians and nationals of many countries across West Africa.
“Efforts to apprehend him did not yield the desired results until we spread our search net wider.”
The IGP further noted that the Nigerian Police Force, NPF, had 300,000 personnel in 127 area commands and 5303 divisions. He noted that the force had consistently contributed to stability and peace in ECOWAS nations and under UN mandates.
“The Nigeria Police Force trained 250 Liberian Police personnel in 2005 and has consistently offered training slots to police officers from Gambia and Sierra Leone at the Police Staff College, Jos and the Police Academy, Wudil.
“We also trained 100 police officers from the Republic of Niger on mobile police combat in 1998. At the end of the training, Nigeria donated trucks, riot equipment and tear smoke to the Nigerien government.”