“How Ghana helped Nigerian police in arresting Billionaire Kidnapper Evans” – IGP

The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has revealed why the police was able arrest kidnap kingpin, Onwumadike Chukwudubem, a.k.a Evans.

The IGP attributed the arrest of Evans to information sharing and intelligence cooperation among police services in West Africa.

Idris said that information sharing was crucial to tackling the menace of trans-border crimes in West Africa.

He noted that it was “through such exchange that we were able to nab a Ghanaian/Nigerian kidnapper two weeks ago, after evading arrest for many years.” 

Idris spoke in Accra, Ghana on a paper titled, “The role of Nigeria Police in national security and its contributions in West Africa”, delivered at an ongoing West Africa international security conference.

He added, “For several years, Evans terrorised Nigerians and nationals of many countries across West Africa. 

“Efforts to apprehend him did not yield the desired results until we spread our search net wider.”

The IGP also said that the Nigeria Police Force had 300,000 personnel in 127 area commands and 5303 divisions, adding that the force had consistently contributed to stability and peace in ECOWAS nations and under UN mandates.

“The Nigeria Police Force trained 250 Liberian Police personnel in 2005 and has consistently offered training slots to police officers from Gambia and Sierra Leone at the Police Staff College, Jos and the Police Academy, Wudil.

“We also trained 100 police officers from the Republic of Niger on mobile police combat in 1998. At the end of the training, Nigeria donated trucks, riot equipment and tear smoke to the Nigerien government,” he said.

Idris said that the Nigeria Police Force also helped to stabilise Guinea-Bissau in 2012 when the military intervened in its leadership and truncated democracy.

“Our police personnel remained there until democracy was restored in 2014,” he stated.