IGP Disu Urges a Unified West African Front to Combat Transnational Crime

The Inspector‑General of Police, IGP Olatunji Rilwan Disu, urged a unified West African strategy to tackle criminal activity in the region.

He made the appeal on Monday while presiding over the 11th Meeting of Heads of INTERPOL National Central Bureaus (NCBs) for West Africa in Abuja.

The gathering brought together NCB leaders from sixteen West African countries, along with senior officials from the INTERPOL General Secretariat and regional security organisations.

IGP Disu noted that human‑trafficking rings, arms traffickers, drug cartels, cyber criminals, money‑laundering operations, terrorist financiers and violent extremist groups all operate without regard for national borders.

He stressed that the region’s success depends not on any single nation’s efforts but on the promptness and effectiveness of collaborations among all sixteen member countries.

Regarding Nigeria’s contributions, IGP Disu highlighted ongoing measures, including the expansion of INTERPOL’s I‑24/7 secure communication network to border control points and law‑enforcement agencies nationwide, ensuring that officers at land crossings have real‑time access to vital intelligence just as those at headquarters do.

He reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to Project GEMINI – the systematic uploading and verification of INTERPOL’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database – and cited the West African Police Information System (WAPIS) as evidence of what can be achieved through purposeful regional data integration.

Looking ahead, he pledged Nigeria’s focus on three priorities: guaranteeing universal access to INTERPOL’s essential databases across West African border infrastructure; establishing coordination mechanisms that enable joint actions within hours rather than weeks; and fostering trust and transparency among NCBs to enable effective information sharing. He noted that without such trust, even the most advanced systems will be inadequate.