THE Joint Border Task Force, JBTF, sponsored by the British High Commission and First Digital and Techno-Law Forensics Company Limited, has provided a 5-day certification training on digital, mobile and computer forensics for three arms of the law enforcement agencies in Nigeria namely the EFCC, NDLEA, and NAPTIP.

•From left: Dr. Peter Olu Olayiwola, President, Computer Forensics Institute, Nigeria, CFIN/CEO, First Digital & Techno-Law Forensics Co.Ltd.; Cally Harrison, NCA Nigeria, British High Commission, and Mr. Dean Goddard, Immigration Liaison Manager /JBTF, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, British High Commission during the opening ceremony of the Digital & Computer Forensics Certification training.

According to the President of Computer Forensics Institute of Nigeria, CFIN/CEO First Digital & Techno-Law Forensics Co.Ltd., Dr. Peter Olu Olayiwola, “the training will give knowledge on digital, mobile and computer forensics to the participants (law enforcement officers),  to enable them acquired digital evidence in addition to other evidences they have been using  in the prosecution of cases in their various agencies in the past.

“As we know, digital evidence provides over 85-90 per cent or more of all types of evidences that are useful in the prosecution of crimes throughout the world today.  This has created vacuum in the law enforcement system in Nigeria and that is what the British High Commission has seen and has decided to provide to the three agencies, so that their officers working in the JBTF can become more effective and more efficient and be able to go to court and present digital evidence in addition to  physical evidences that they have been using in the prosecution of their cases”,  Olayiwola said.

According to him, the training became necessary as Nigeria has all the legal framework necessary to use digital or electronic evidence.

“We have the Evidence Act 2011 as amended which admits digital evidences in the court. We also have the Cyber-crime Act 2015 which now criminalizes a lot of acts committed within the cyberspace. So that was the reason and also Nigeria being a hub to Europe and other countries, having this type of skill from the training , will help our patrol teams in the execution of their duties”, he said.

The Immigration Liaison Manager of JBTF, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, British High Commission, Mr. Dean Goddard explained the relevance of the training to the agencies  present, adding that  in  conducting their investigations, more of those investigations would be done digitally to  improve the NDLEA, NAPTIP and the EFCC’s  capability to use digital and computer forensics evidence in investigations and to present evidence in court effectively.

Goddard said the outfit exchanges perspectives from the UK to maintain best practice and try to move case work and investigation to professional and more credible level.

“We are working in partnership to  cut the time it takes from the initial detection of a crime to prosecution.  In addition to delivering training on digital and computer forensics we are introducing modern processes such as the video recording of interviews with suspects and witnesses and producing typewritten witness statements. We are working with the Criminal Justice sector to ensure that these methods are accepted by the courts”, he said.