COP Isaac Ken Yeboah, in a group photograph with Jean Pierre, Akala Egnim, and participants
The Director General In Charge Of The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), COP Isaac Ken Yeboah has revealed that the details of about 18000 convicts have been inputted into the database of the West Africa Police information system (WAPIS) by the Ghana Police Service.
He said the data is continuously being used as part of the effort to combat crime and aid inter- agency coorporation in crime fight.
COP Yeboah , made this known when he represented the Inspector General Of Police, Dr George Akuffu Dampare at the opening of the West African Police Information System(WAPIS) Regional Training on quality of data for some selected security officers from the sub region.
WAPIS has been designed to build the capacity of the law enforcement agencies in member states through the creation of electronic databases with the aim of sharing such data in real times, at national, regional and global levels in crime fight.
Countries represented included Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, and the Gambia.
The CID Boss said WAPIS is helping in the sharing of data on criminals in West Africa who are engaged in transnational crime including human trafficking, arms smuggling, illicit drug trafficking, piracy, cyber crime among others.
“In 2010, during a symposium organized jointly by INTERPOL and European Union in Brussels, the West African Police Chiefs declared that in order to tackle the security challenges facing the sub region, these countries needed an automated system for sharing police data, interconnected at both the regional and international level,” he said.
He revealed that in Ghana, WAPIS stakeholders included the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Prisons Service, Narcotic Control Commission and Attorney General’s Department.
In an address by the Ambassador of ECOWAS in Ghana, Baba Gana Wakil said in order to fight transnational organized crime, member states must collaborate at all levels in real time.
He said one of the challenges in fighting transnational organized crime in West Africa, is the lack of appropriate infrastructure to collect, store, manage , analyze and share data amongst the law enforcement agencies.
“In order to complement the ongoing efforts in the fight against terrorism at the regional and national levels, the ECOWAS Commission has initiated the ECOWAS Terrorism Action Plan 2020- 2024,” he said, adding that the action plan, focuses on intelligence sharing.
Also present at the ceremony were the representative of the European delegation in Accra, Jean Pierre, WAPIS Operation Officer, Akala Egnim, superintendent Naomi Acquah, Deputy Director, INTERPOL Ghana .
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey