Police commence establishment of crime data bank in Nigeria

Arase

EMPLOYERS of labour and foreign countries who find it difficult to prosecute discrete background check on Nigerians may now heave a sigh of relief as the Nigeria Police under the present regime of IGP Solomon Arase, has commenced the development of a Crime and Incident Data Bank. The new project would ensure that crime suspects in Nigeria do not escape the law.

The new innovation would allow the Nigerian Police acquire and maintain the criminal profile of suspects, convicts, ex-convicts and persons of interest.

It would also aid speedy resolution of crimes. According to the project developer and Managing Director of Hardcore Biometric System, Mr. Kizito Ofonagoro, an Information Technology Engineer, the project would allow the Nigeria Police build criminal profiles of all forms of offenders.

The project is about developing a crime and incident database for the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to help compile the data of everyone who has committed a crime or involved in one in any part of the country.

The purpose of the database is to give a broad over-view into the criminal history of any persons in Nigeria.” “It would allow the NPF build criminal profile of continuous offenders thereby establishing patterns which will aid the much precision needed in criminal investigation.

It would also allow the NPF perform finger-print dusting on crime scene, weapons and other crime scene artifacts which can be used to conduct searches on the data and provide matches.”

He added: “By maintaining a forensic history of spent weapons casings. The NPF will have additional means of identifying weapons used in multiple crimes. It would also help promote international co-operation between the NPF and other international agencies such as Embassies, High Commissions, Interpol and United Nations.”

The database would also be linked to the Nigeria Immigration Service, identifying illegal immigrants and locating them. “It would also aid the Nigeria Customs in monitoring illegal import/export as well as illegal clearing of goods and assist Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) to identify fake and expired vehicle license.

Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) would also benefit, as expired and fake drivers license would be intercepted while traffic offenders would be tracked without hassles,” Ofonagoro said.

Difficulties in running a background check on all political aspirants, banks staffs and other security and government agencies would soon become a thing of the past, he assured.

Ofonagoro said individuals and companies can also do background checks on persons of interest when the database is finally established.

His words: “It would be a quantum leap towards utilizing of information from DNA forensic lab in crime solving efforts. It would also serve as deterrence to potential offenders who will now know the NPF now has better crime solving abilities. They will have a re-think before committing any offence.”

The America -based company fully established in Nigeria, said its technical team are already in the country partnering with Huawei Technology to deliver the project in 36 months.

GUARDIAN