This General Assembly provides a platform for the organisation of three (3) meetings taking place successively with the main objective of sharing information and exchanging experiences on regional security issues.
The participants in this General Assembly were law enforcement officials, ECOWAS personnel, strategic partners, INTERPOL representatives and relevant security officers.
The culmination of the WAPCCO General Assembly was the meeting of Ministers in charge of security who considered and adopted the reports proposed by the 2 previous meetings.
The Specific Objectives of this General Assembly were among others: a) to review the state of implementation of the previous recommendations; (b) the exchange of information and the sharing of experiences and best practices between law enforcement authorities, security agencies and Interpol staff; c) increase understanding of the provisions and efforts of the ECOWAS Commission in law enforcement and other security-related areas; d) an overview of the activities of the Commission Secretariat and regional security dynamics.
A total of 5 interventions furnished the opening ceremony including that of the “General Controller” Tomas Djassi representing Guinea Bissau who affirmed that there were threats of insecurity of different types of transnational crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings, cybercrime, proliferation of small arms among others motivated by weak land border control, which is likely to facilitate the carrying out of these illicit activities.
Mr. Francis Rwego, Special Representative of INTERPOL to the African Union indicated the commitment in the fight against crime organised through some projects that INTERPOL Implements such as WAPIS, AGWE …
Commissioner General of Police Oumarou Moussa, in his capacity as Director General of the National Police of Niger, thanked the participants and the ECOWAS Police Chiefs while outlining the importance of INTERPOL in the fight against organised crime
Amb. Abdel – Fatau MUSAH (PhD) Commissioner, Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the ECOWAS Commission represented by Amb. Guillaume N’Dri GNAMIEN, Permanent Resident of ECOWAS to the Republic of Niger, stressed that ECOWAS’ regional integration vision aims to promote cooperation that would raise the standard of living of its people and ensure economic growth but that vision can only be achieved in an environment of peace and security.
The Minister of the Interior and Decentralisation of Niger, Mr. Hamadou Adamou Souley, reiterated the support of the Government of Niger in the fight against organised crime in West Africa. He further invited ECOWAS to continue and intensify initiatives to increase collaboration among Member States before declaring the session open.
The General Assembly of the WAPCCO will take place as follows, with the meeting of the Committee of Chiefs of Police on March 28, the meeting of the Committee of Security Services, on March 29 and will conclude with the meeting of Ministers responsible for internal security on March 30.
