The high cost of procuring hi-tech security gadgets and cost of training personnel have been identified as the bane of fighting crime in Nigeria.
The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris noted this in Awka, Anambra, while declaring open an international Forensic Science and Criminal Justice Symposium organized by Forensic Science Unit of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, in conjunction with Nebraska Institute of Forensic Science, USA.
He challenged Nigerian Universities to undertake researches targeted at developing state-of-the-art crime fighting gadgets suitable to crime peculiar to the modern day society.
“The challenge faced by law enforcement in developing countries like ours is in the acquisition of these gadgets as they are very expensive, fabricated by the developed countries and thus training in most cases are done outside the shores of Nigeria, which unarguably leaves a huge drain on our lean resources”, he said.
Represented by the Deputy Inspector- General of Police in charge of State Criminal Investigation Department at the police headquarters, Hyacinth Dagala, Idris said the Force as the lead internal security agency was poised to provide a secured world.
“The Force is currently establishing a forensic unit in Lagos and Abuja, which would be equipped with state of the art crime fighting tools, as well as a cyber crime unit to curb digital crimes with personnel carefully selected and trained outside the shores of Nigeria in collaboration with our development partners”, he added.
He stated that the force was training young officers at the police Academy in Wudil, Kano for a five year course with specialty in different crime related areas.
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Joseph Ahaneku said the university was ready to offer itself for the promotion of forensic science, saying it would serve as a veritable tool to fight crime and criminality in the country.
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