Abuja: ECOWAS President, Dr. Omar Touray, has emphasized the critical importance of collaboration among member states to ensure the sustainability of the West African Police Information System (WAPIS), a subregional security initiative. This was highlighted during the official handover ceremony of WAPIS by the International Police Organisation (INTERPOL) to ECOWAS, national, and regional authorities and governments.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, WAPIS represents a successful model of collaboration between ECOWAS and INTERPOL, with funding from the European Union (EU), to combat transnational crimes and terrorism. Touray, represented by Dr. Abdel-Fatah Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, described the initiative as a unique technical tool that enables all member states to collaborate in addressing subregional crime.
Touray stressed that terrorism and other crimes are not confined to specific zones or individual member states but are widespread throughout West Africa, necessitating collaboration. He emphasized the continued efforts of ECOWAS to maintain intelligence sharing and cooperation with countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, even though they have decided to leave the bloc.
‘We feel that you cannot fight terrorism in the Sahel alone without collaboration with the coastal countries, as we have seen evidence. So, ECOWAS’ door has always been open for collaboration and we are also happy that this extends beyond even the 15 original member states of ECOWAS to other countries. We need to broaden partnerships and continue collaboration with the European Union to maintain the expertise developed during the WAPIS process in the region,’ he stated.
The commission’s president also noted that experts from member states had made several recommendations that would lead to a legally binding mechanism to solidify the WAPIS framework. He highlighted the necessity of securing the political will of member states to recognize the importance of information sharing and the utility of the WAPIS tool in combating criminality.
‘This is so that we can genuinely have a regional approach. The region must have autonomy over the infrastructure that is being created. WAPIS has succeeded in bridging the implementation gap to an extent. We need to take it further, and that will require a continuation of the WAPIS agenda, even as the funding by the European Union is coming to an end,’ he added.
Nigeria’s Minister of Police Affairs, Sen. Ibrahim Geidam, remarked on Nigeria’s significant benefits from WAPIS implementation since signing a Memorandum of Understanding with INTERPOL in 2019. He noted that recognizing the importance of interagency collaboration in tackling security challenges, the government had involved key national law enforcement agencies.
Additionally, Geidam highlighted the ministry’s recent organization of a three-day WAPIS workshop focused on interagency collaboration and information sharing among law enforcement agencies in Nigeria. The workshop gathered stakeholders from various agencies, resulting in strategic deliberations encapsulated in a communique presented to the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr. Gautier Mignot, noted that the success of WAPIS demonstrated the transformative potential of regional and international cooperation supported by modern technologies in enhancing security in West Africa. He noted that the EU had played a pivotal role in modernizing West Africa’s security forces through WAPIS, funded with 28 million euros since its inception in 2012.
The ambassador disclosed that since 2015, over 740,000 police data entries have been digitalized and integrated into the WAPIS systems, serving as a critical asset in combating transnational crime. With the EU’s funding officially ending soon, Mignot underscored the importance of ensuring WAPIS’s sustainability for continued service to the region’s security forces.
Mr. Cyril Gout, Interpol Executive Director of Police Services, who officially handed over WAPIS to Geidam and ECOWAS, expressed his satisfaction in witnessing WAPIS reach its current level of implementation. He emphasized that WAPIS, through harmonized data sharing, had become the cornerstone of law enforcement in the ECOWAS subregion.
The Inspector-General of Nigeria Police Force, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, represented by Mr. Olaolu Adegbite, Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Interpol National Central Bureau, also delivered a goodwill message, highlighting WAPIS’s significant impact in enhancing law enforcement capabilities.
NAN reports that WAPIS was unveiled in September 2012 to bolster the capacity of West African law enforcement agencies to tackle transnational crime using digital technology.