Ambrose Dery, IGP Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, in a group photograph with dignitaries at the WAPIS programme at the police headquarters
The Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, has stated that the West African Information System (WAPIS) has been beneficial to Ghana with regards to criminal investigations, particularly the fight against transnational organised crime.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of WAPIS awareness raising event at the police headquarters in Accra, Mr. Dery said almost all investigating units at the CID Headquarters fall on the WAPIS centre to ascertain the criminal background of suspects or persons of interest in criminal cases.
“These include the INTERPOL Unit, Intelligence Unit, Financial Forensic Unit, Cyber Crime Unit, and Homicide Unit among others,” he stated.
He said the WAPIS database has been extended to the four main stakeholder-institutions in the country including the Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Prisons Service, Attorney General’s Department and the Narcotics Control Commission, and this has enhanced information sharing between the institutions while plans are underway to get more institutions hooked onto the system.
“Thanks to the WAPIS Programme, the Data Centre in Ghana, in conjunction with INTERPOL has conducted a series of training programmes to help enhance the capacity of stakeholders in data collection, management, analysis and sharing of information to help in the fight against crime at the national, regional, and global levels. Under the programme, about 47 operators, trainers, validators and system administrators were trained in 2021,” he disclosed.
The Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, in an address said the WAPIS awareness creation is significant because it gives the European Union, INTERPOL and ECOWAS an opportunity to see for themselves, what has been achieved with the funding and logistics they have magnanimously provided.
He stressed the fact that resources invested in the WAPIS system would be futile if the system were not used for the purpose for which it has been established.
Also present were the ECOWAS Resident Representative, Bans Gava-Wakil; Head of European Union Delegation, Irchad Razaaly; Head of INTERPOL WAPIS Programme, Richard Gotwe and members of the Police Management Board (POMAB).
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey