ECOWAS Members Urged to Collaborate With Interpol On Crime Control

19 May 2011
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Abuja - Nigeria — ECOWAS Member States have been urged to collaborate with the general secretariat of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) in sensitizing regional police forces to secure international police cooperation in the fight against crime.

This was one of the decisions of the two-day meeting of West African Police Chiefs Committee's (WAPCCO) sub-committees for training and coordination, which ended Wednesday 18 May 2011 at the ECOWAS Commission headquarters, Abuja. The committees noted that the sensitization would enable the forces to imbibe best practices in providing effective security in the region against the background of new trends in crime. Participants highlighted the benefits of joint police operations in the fight against transnational crime and urged member states to strengthen their capacity in tackling security problems in the region.

They also recommended that WAPCCO should agree on another country to host the Regional Bureau of INTERPOL for West Africa, previously based in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, in order to facilitate the normal functioning of the structure for regional police cooperation. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the meeting, Lieutenant Colonel Dieng Abdulrahman, Head of Division of Regional Security in the Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the ECOWAS Commission urged member states to ratify the regional Protocol establishing the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) which was adopted by ECOWAS Heads of State and Government in October 2005.

Civilians, police, gendarmerie and military personnel from the ECOWAS Commission and Member States attended the meeting, the first of two preparatory meetings ahead of WAPCCO forthcoming general assembly. WAPCCO is a specialized institution of ECOWAS empowered to identify trends and patterns of crime, organize conferences and meetings to discuss regional collaboration, establish and nurture contacts with different law-enforcement authorities and assist in sharing best practices.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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