The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) say it will strengthen collaboration with the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in training and intelligence sharing to curb illicit financial flows in the country.
The Inspector-General of Police (IG), Olatunji Disu, said this on Tuesday in Abuja during a courtesy visit by a delegation from the NFIU led by its Director/Chief Executive Officer, Hajia Hafsat Bakari.
Disu said that there was the need for both organisations to collaborate more and share intelligence because of the security situation in the country.
He listed the security challenges to include terrorism, banditry, crude oil theft among others.
“Following their proceeds will assist to bring down the crime to nothing less than 50 per cent, and by extension curb a lot of their criminal activities.
“So we need to collaborate, and continue to see ourselves as symbolic twins.
“We have directed all our officers to direct cases they discover have to do with terrorism, banditry, and where monies have been circulated, to teams that specialise in handling such,” he said.
The I-G also said that the force had established the “Proceeds of Crime Section”, and was headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police with vast experience, and expertise in financial crime.
He said this was with a view to strengthen and counter terrorism financing.
According to him, we have contributed to national and international compliance, by obligation.
“The establishment and operationalisation of the section has enhanced the visibility and relevance of the force within the Nigerian anti-monetary architecture.
“Since we now have a section that are trained to handle it, you can expect better coordination between the Nigerian Police and the NFIU. Let us share intelligence, and train together.
“When trainings come your way, we plead, give us some slots, especially training that have to do with these operations of movement of money around,” he said.
Earlier, the NFIU boss said the visit was an opportunity to reaffirm a partnership that was fundamental to Nigeria’s national security, economic stability and international standing.
She said the that the NPF had remained one of the key partners of the NFIU within Nigeria’s anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing framework.
Abubakar said that the NPF had served not only as a first responder to criminal activity, but also as a critical actor in the detection, investigation, prosecution and disruption of the financial dimensions of crime.
According to her, financial intelligence has increasingly become the thread that connects criminal conduct to those who profit from all forms of criminal activities.
“In this regard, the collaboration between the NFIU and the Nigerian Police Force remains essential to ensuring that criminals are not only arrested, but deprived of the financial resources that sustain their operations.”
She commended the NPF for supporting the FIU to interact with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) during their assessment visit to Nigeria.
Abubakar said the conduct, activities, support and the expertise of personnel of the force led to the successful completion of NFIU action plan.
“This ultimately led to Nigeria being delisted from the grey list last year.
“So I commend you, all the men who worked with us, especially the team from the AML CFT section,” she said.
