Minister of State Police Affairs, Hajia Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, on Monday, sought collaboration, partnership, and technical support for the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) from the European Union (EU) to enable the police ecosystem to achieve its target of deploying global norms and best practices.
This was contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja by the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Police Affairs Alhaji Bolaji O. Kazeem
According to the statement, the Minister stated this during a meeting with the European team led by the European Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Samuela Isopi in Abuja.
It explained that the Minister stated that the technical support and partnership should be in the area of addressing policy gaps and capacity building that would boost the capacity of an existing and evolving Nigeria Police Force in the country.
According to her, “what we are looking at is the community-based policing with intelligence-led and technology-driven. That is the face of every police force globally, the path we like to go. The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation ( EUROPO) has a lot of capacity in that area and if we work together, we will achieve a lot”.
“I am seeking every support that can be for the Ministry to achieve the Renewed Hope Agenda which has policing components and none of them can work without it. We are harmonizing various police reforms that are in existence, analyzing why they are not fully implemented, and coming up with what we can achieve within 2-3 years”.
The Renewed Hope Agenda has eight components which has peace and security being one of them noting that the Ministry has a lot of targets and the need for collaboration with the EU in the area of reforms, capacity building, and community policing that will help to curb transnational crimes for collective achievements.
According to the statement, earlier, the European Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Samuela Isopi had stated that the EU would continue to support all Nigeria relevant agencies that are involved in improving the coordination of policing in the areas of training and capacity building.
She added that the European Union has a good collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force noting that they work together within the framework of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants.
According to her, “We have been doing capacity and supporting coordination at national, regional, and international levels”.
She pointed out that the EU has a new migration programme which would be signed next week stressing that the agreement was s essential because it was a political tool to do more in other areas.
’According to her, We are preparing a new phase of our program to end gender-based violence and we need your cooperation and support to work together. On transactional crimes, it is interesting that we can collaborate. We help to establish collaboration between Nigerian institutions and European entities and reaching out to the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EUROPO) and the possibility of signing a memorandum of understanding”.
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