Posted by By Funmi Peter-Omale on
British Foreign Secretary, lack Straw yestetrday announced the donation of £480,000 for Nigeria to fight economic crimes, drug and train men and officers of the Nigeria Police.
British Foreign Secretary, lack Straw yestetrday announced the donation of £480,000 for Nigeria to fight economic crimes, drug and train men and officers of the Nigeria Police.
Straw announced the donation while on a courtesy call on the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero at the Force Headquarters in Abuja yesterday.
According to him "we recognise in the United Kingdom that judicial cooperation have not been swift or effective as they should be but they are getting better but we got to do more.
"We also want to see how we can improve capacity here in Nigeria and therefore I am pleased to announce the sum of £250,000 for the training of Nigeria Police in investigation techniques. This is going to be implemented by the Metropolitan Police, and we aim to re-establish professional competences in serious criminal investigations, this should improve crime detection and prosecution and increase public confidence in the Police.
"Secondly, United Kingdom is providing £230,000 towards the United Nations organised drugs and crime project to strengthen Economic and Crime Commission and the Judicial system."
While describing his discussion with the IG and the Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bayo Ojo as interesting, he said "we brain stormed on my responsibilites as the Foreign Secretary and also on my experience on my previous job as the British Crime Secretary, I was responsible directly for Police services in the United Kingdom ."
According to him, "we talked about the increasing cooperation between your Police systems and our legal systems. One of the things we talked abut is that we have these criminals, they don't understand borders, they dont recognise ethnic or religious inclinations, if there is money to be made, they will cooperate.
Because we have a large population of Nigerians in the UK, there is bound to be cooperation between criminals here and the UK. We talked about criminal justice."
On the issue of corruption and economic crimes, the British Foreign Secretary said the extent to which corruption had dented the image of a country like Nigeria adding that "corruption and the high instance of such crimes have impeded Nigeria's progress not least by discouraging foreign investment."
He assured that "this project will enhance institutional advancement and a more transparent management of public resources. We hope the UK contribution will encourage the UK and other donors so that the project can be expanded in the best in terest of ordinary Nigerians."
Straw applauded the reforms sweepimg through all the sectors in Nigeria being undertaken by the federal government in fighting corruption arguing that the same reforms must be evident even at the state and local governmnet levels. "We need to say that in a big country like Nigeria, those reforms have to be translated into the state level as well. This will enhance Nigeria' reputation."
Inspector General of Police, Sunday Ehindero described the meeting with the British Foreign Secretary as as alandmark in the history of Nigeria in fightin economic and finacial crimes and corruption. "What we have done today is looking into our criminal justice system how the judicial system could be enhanced