THE Nigeria Police Force, in partnership with a firm, Radio Tactics Group Limited, has trained 192 personnel of the force on Athena Forensic Intelligence Solution (AFIS).
The Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Olumuyiwa Adejobi said this in a statement, yesterday, in Abuja.
Adejobi said the training, aimed at strengthening the digital, forensic and intelligence gathering of the force to combat cyber related crimes across the country was held from July 9 to Aug. 15.
He said the 192 participants were drawn from the 36 Police Commands in the country, the Federal Capital Territory and 10 specialised formations.
“The training had experts from the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) and Radio Tactics group as facilitators who further drilled the participants on threat identification, extracting and processing. “They were also drilled on communication and location data from SIM cards, GPS devices, satellite phones, and various mobile devices including grey-market phones and biometric capture.
“The participants were also trained on the use of forensic hotlists to match intelligence records with operational data,” he said.
He said the mission-ready skills were expected to improve the force’s response to cyber-related crimes and complex investigations across commands and formations.
In another development, Adejobi said operatives of the Nigeria Police National Cyber Crimes Center (NPF-NCCC) had arrested three suspects in Abuja and Lagos over cyberstalking, identity theft, and online fraud.
The police spokesman said the arrest was in furtherance of the force’s effort to combat cyber related crimes in the country.
Adejobi said the suspects were found to be involved in large scale digital impersonation schemes and other cyber related offenses.
He said the suspects had on July 18 hacked a WhatsApp account belonging to an unsuspecting user.
“The called the user and threatened to expose confidential data on the account if the sum of N3 million was not paid to them.
“Detailed forensic analysis of the account led to the arrest of the suspects, recovery of the account and discovery of an ongoing organised crime which is currently under investigation,” he said.
Adejobi said the Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Mr Kayode Egbetokun had reiterated the commitment of his leadership to embrace modern and digitalised approaches in combating cybercrime and related offenses.
He said the I-G had pledged continuous training and re-training of personnel to meet best global practices in the face of emerging threats. NAN
