Police to create special unit to tackle cybercrime

The Nigeria Police Force on Monday said it would create a Specialists Unit to deal with the rising cases of cybercrime in the country.

The Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Mr. Ibrahim Idris, disclosed this at a three-day Training Workshop on Cybercrime for police officers in Abuja.

Idris was represented by AIG Umar Shehu, Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Intelligence department.

He said that the training further demonstrated the commitment of the force to check cybercrime in the country.

He said that the workshop would focus on scientific police investigation processes, tools and techniques for tackling cybercrime, among others.

“We are building on our existing forensic and cybercrime facilities in order to successfully tackle the menace of this complex crime.

“Apart from setting up a dedicated forensic and cybercrime unit, we are going to continue to educate our rank and file on ICT,“he said.

The I-G said that the force was also providing up-to-date training and retraining to the rank and file.

He said that there was a need for collaboration between the police and the Cybercrime Advisory Council Office and other stakeholders to check the threat.

He reiterated the commitment of the force to do everything within its powers to tackle cybercrime.

“As you can see, the challenges we face in policing cybercrime are multidimensional,“he said.

Earlier, Prof. Olu Ogunshaki of the DFID and Technical Advisor to the I-G on ICT, said that cybercrime would continue to rise unless there was collaboration to fight it.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, said Nigeria was losing about N127 billion to cybercrime annually.

NAN reports that the workshop would be organised in all the zones and Police Colleges.