International Police Organization (INTERPOL), has appointed  Ifeanyi Henry Uche, Nigerian Police Commissioner, as the chairman of the African heads of cybercrime units comprising heads of 54 countries.

Uche who is the Commissioner of Police in charge Nigeria Police Force National Cyber Crime Centre (NPF -NCCC) is taking over from Ratjindua Tjivikua, head of Cybercrime of Namibia after his tenure expired.

Speaking at the closing of the Africa Working Group Meeting on Cybercrime on Friday, Uche said, “The high penetration rate of new technologies in Africa increasingly exposes the sub-regional cyberspace as potential targets for cybercriminals as most African countries still have low levels of commitment to cybersecurity.

“It is important that we join the operational sub groups created by INTERPOL to bolster our collective efficiency in the fight against cybercrime in the subregion.

He said, “Resource sharing, the level of information and intelligence among African law enforcement is still at its lowest ebb largely blamed on extant domestic laws.

“I advocate for the establishment of African Incident Response Mechanism and Cybersecurity Frameworks on a Police-to-Police basis to eliminate the bottlenecks impeding free flow of resources.

“We must leverage the INTERPOL NCB 1/247 communication network and existing capabilities with regard to sharing of classified intelligence.”

Uche said this should be done with “Establishment of Specialized Cybercrime Units, noting it is rather unfortunate that most African countries do not have a specialized Cybercrime Unit dedicated for the investigation of Cybercrime and cyber-enabled crime. I implore member states to under-study the Nigeria police model of the Nigeria police Force National Cybercrime Center (NPF-NCCC).

“Investment in Technology, Infrastructure and Capacity building through a deliberate effort by member states to make the multi-million-dollar commitment in acquiring the much-needed technology and digital solution as a prelude to efficient cybercrime response and prevention. We must begin to look inwards by developing indigenous technologies to address our peculiar socio-cultural challenges.

“Legislative support to push the advocacy and lobby the governments to make and enforce robust cybersecurity laws and regulations that address cybercrime effectively. This includes laws on data protection, online privacy, electronic transactions, and cybercrime prevention.

“With the Fourth Industrial Revolution and emergence of Al and IOT, the undeniable reality is that the global cyberspace is undergoing profound and rapid changes given the penetration of new technologies and growing interconnection of the system.

“Though this evolution offers opportunities for innovations, diversification, and cost optimization, it also carries with it increased exposure to new and devastating risks of imminent cyber-attacks. These attacks permeate and affect the entire global digital ecosystem equally with no exception to geographic belts hence it affects businesses of all sizes both in public and private sectors in all regions at a breakneck speed.

“Cybercrime poses a significant threat to our societies, economies, and security”,  he said. “it is imperative that we work together to address this growing challenge. As Chairman, I am committed to lead from the front, fostering the much-desired collaboration among our member Units to enhance our collective ability to prevent and investigate cyber crimes effectively in Africa.

“I consider this as a call to champion the enthronement of a new charter of technological renaissance and home-grown cybersecurity ethics in Africa and a paradigm shift from absolute dependence on external solutions to African nurtured technological initiatives, adaptive to our Socio-Political ecosystem.

In her remarks at the event, Hajia Imaan Suleiman Ibrahim, minister of State, Police Affairs, said, “The Government of Nigeria is fully committed to reforming our police force, recognizing that cybersecurity is an integral component of our national security agenda.

“We understand that a secure cyberspace is essential for our immediate and long-term development objectives. Therefore, we are dedicated to enhancing our cybersecurity capabilities, investing in the necessary resources, and fostering collaboration both domestically and internationally.

“Consistent with the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President, we are working assiduously to move beyond mere conversations to working with key stakeholders to strengthen Nigeria’s cybersecurity legal and regulatory frameworks.

“We are working to enhance the provision of the requisite tools, equipment, and facilities to strengthen the cybersecurity architecture of the Nigeria Police Force, and we remain committed to regional and international cooperation mechanisms.”

National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) said Nigeria has made history by becoming the first country in Africa to acquire a cosmic ray muon detector to aid climate change and atmospheric research.

The muon detector acquired by Nigeria for monitoring cosmic rays and space weather was built and designed by the Physics and Astronomy Department of Georgia State University (GSU), USA;  Prof. Babatunde Rabiu, director of UN- African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in English (UN-ARCSSTEE), a research and development centre of NASRDA, disclosed.

He spoke at a symposium on Cosmic Rays and Space Weather was organised by UN-ARCSSTEE in collaboration with Georgia State University (GSU), USA in Abuja.

According to Prof Rabiu a cosmic ray is a natural radiation that is not ionized in the atmosphere. He added that cosmic rays vary in location, latitude, and altitude of location and can be modified when certain anthropogenic activities occur.

“More than ever, scientists are curious about predicting weather, and studying space weather, especially now that climate change is becoming obvious, which is the condition in outer space.

“Cosmic rays are everywhere and it has to do with the earth, and it is useful in studying the climate but is yet to be fully impacted because it is ongoing research.

“That is why we hope that with the measurements, we are taking with the muon detector, we will be able to have effective predictability of our climate system,’’ he said.

Rabiu, while speaking on space weather activities in Africa, said it dated back to 2004 with the distribution of manometers across Africa by donor agencies.

He said that although few countries in Africa had their Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, the continent needed more monitoring systems for space weather.

Prof. He Xiaochun, director of Physics, at GSU, USA, said the project was targeted at exploring living in space, understanding it, and its adaptation, and providing information for stakeholders to protect and make informed decisions.

Xiaochun explained that cosmic ray radiation, mostly proton particles, is produced far in deep space and gets into the solar system and produces cosmic ray showers in the earth’s upper atmosphere.

“We measure the shower particles at the surface of the earth and decode the state of the space and earth weather.

“One needs a network IP address to be able to share data and reconfigure the detector with remote access,” he said.

Dr Bonaventure Okere, director of the Centre for Basic Space Science and Astronomy, said that the facility would aid astronomy studies and enhance research and development in that area.

The symposium highlighted cosmic radiations, how it interacts with the atmosphere, and environments, the impact of climate change, and how such radiations could be studied and analysed using the cosmic rays muon detector.

The meeting also discussed the need for stakeholders to make informed decisions on the reduction of gas emissions and having clean air for sustainable human development.

Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST, has embarked on clampdown of illegal courier, express delivery, dispatch and logistics service operators in Kano State.

Dotun Shonde, the General Manager, Courier and Logistics Regulatory Department (CLRD), NIPOST, while speaking with newsmen during the clampdown operation in Kano, said the exercise became imperative to sanitize and weed out quacks from the postal service industry.

Shonde said he has received several complaints from Nigerians about sharp practices in the sector perpetrated by the illegal operators who are operating without obtaining licence and contrary to the extant laws of the postal service.

According to him, “the enforcement operations of NIPOST Act provides that before you operate a courier, express, delivery, dispatch and logistics service, you obtain a grant of license from the PostMaster General. It is stipulated in Section 43 of the NIPOST Act CAP 127 laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

“So, as you have seen, we have embarked on clampdown operation, we have people who are operating in defiant of that law, without regard to that extant law as provided for.

“The Postal, Express, Courier and Logistics industry in Nigeria has been proliferated and infiltrated with so many unlicensed/illegal Courier and Logistics Operators with reckless abandonment for ethical standard and professional conduct.

“There exist unethical sharp practices, such as price undercutting, pilfering, broaching, damages, loss and dumping of customers items, poaching and subletting of operating licenses with mountain of public complaints about Customer’s being duped or obtaining money from them under false pretenses, no traceable office address nor registered brand name.

“There abound the issue of public safety and security threats, due to carriage of illicit drugs and prohibited items. We have cases in some other parts of the country where during clampdown we found in their dispatch boxes with illicit drugs, small arms and ammunition, human parts and currency.

“All these things are prohibited in the postal service but because they are quacks and not operating within the professional ethics, so they carry anything. And of course, they have patronizers, people who patronize them because of the illicit activities.

“It is a menace to the Postal industry and portrays a negative image to the Nigerian society at large. It is against global best practices and International conventions.

“The Enforcement Team consists of officials of the Courier and Logistics Regulatory Department (CLRD) NIPOST, armed mobile police officers and men of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), and members of the press.

“So, we are here to sanitize the postal service in Kano State. The enforcement operations are about sanity to the postal market or industry. We have a lot of quacks operating in that space. No licence, no traceable office address. We have lots of complaints in the office by the Nigerian public.

“It is expedient for any interested private investors into the Postal, Express, Courier and Logistics business to follow the due process and obtain a grant of operating Licenses from the Federal Government. They are required and advised to obtain a grant of Operating License from NIPOST as stipulated by the extant laws or risk facing the full wrath of the law, and prosecution,” he stated.

The General Manager, Shonde, however, stated that it has carried out the enforcement exercise in Abia, Rivers, Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Katsina, Kwara States while hinting that they will continue the exercise in Kaduna, Abuja and later Osun state.

Meanwhile, some of the offices sealed were located around Bompai road, Shari’a Commission road and Tarauni market among others.