The Police Administration deserve plaudits for their recent novelties in reaching out to their American and Nigerian counterparts to foster cooperation in fighting international crime.
In a new age of cybercrime and international car thefts in North America and the shipment of same to Ghana, such cooperation is critical in making the criminality unattractive to the criminals. Even before crime became sophisticated as we have it today, Interpol existed to deal with international crime, underscoring the importance of such cooperation.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Christian Tetteh Yohuno led a team from the Police Headquarters to New York recently to engage with their counterparts in the American city which harbours one of the world’s busiest police departments.
With a sizeable number of Ghanaians in that city and, of course, some of them involved in international crime, such cooperation will inure to the mutual benefits of both parties.
The visit was arguably an unprecedented feat underpinned by a spirit of cooperation for which the IGP deserves commendation.
There have been instances in which the American authorities required the support of their Ghanaian counterparts in tracking down fugitives with sometimes dual citizenship taking cover in Ghana and vice versa.
As if by design, the Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Ms. Lydia Yaako Donkor has also visited her Nigerian Police Force (NPF) counterparts at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, Nigeria. The mission, just like her boss the IGP’s to New York, is intended to establish cooperation between the two internal security organisations.
Criminal investigation, the backbone of policing, has fresh terms of reference due to the unusual dimension and sophistication assumed by crime as in cybercrime.
Another criminality in recent times is human trafficking, whose cross-border feature makes it rather complex and requiring international cooperation such as the Ghana Police CID is seeking with their Nigerian counterparts.
The two have agreed to set up a joint taskforce towards the actualisation of the project of real cooperation in fighting cross-border crime.
Ghana and Nigeria being two colonial stable sisters, share common traits; training manuals, procedures and general orders.
The Nigerian community in Ghana is large, its members engaged largely in business activities for upwards of two hundred years. Some of them have been seamlessly assimilated into the Ghanaian communities through intermarriages.
There are thousands too who came in as part of the wave of business-hungry ECOWAS members engaged in genuine activities. There are also criminals who engage in cybercrime in Ghana. Some of the accessories to these crimes were trafficked into Ghana unknowingly. The Ghana CID is on record to have rescued many such persons from the claws of Nigerian masterminds. The Nigerian Police is on record to have rescued some Ghanaians lured to Nigeria by traffickers.
Cross-border crimes involving Nigerians and Ghanaians, a common trend, can only be addressed when there is mutual cooperation between the two countries’ police establishments.
It is for the foregone reasons that we find the engagement between the Ghana CID and their Nigerian counterparts inuring to the benefits of the two countries.
Under existing international protocols such as ECOWAS and Interpol, the cooperation between Ghana and Nigeria can only get better and bring more benefits in the form of reduced cross-border crimes.
Such cooperation also adds fresh layers to the existing diplomatic links between the two countries.