President Bola Tinubu has met with the director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Christopher Asher Wray.
In the meeting on Friday at the State House in Abuja, President Tinubu said Wray’s visit to Nigeria “conveys the importance of Nigeria and Nigerian partnership in the work of America’s law enforcement institutions and vice-versa”.
Tinubu also said that Nigeria cannot achieve success in the war to eradicate crimes without partnership with other countries.
“It is an honour for me to receive Director Christopher Wray, the leader of an organisation, that has demonstrated consistent procedural sophistication and a reputation for excellence over several years,” Tinubu was quoted as saying in a statement by Ajuri Ngelale, his media aide.
“For us, it is a recognition of what stage we are at, who we are, and the level of interest both countries share in eliminating crimes locally and globally.
“We cannot achieve this important feat of eliminating crimes without collaboration.
“Incidentally, as the Chairman of ECOWAS, Nigeria is also collaborating with other West African countries to fight economic and other related crimes.”
President Tinubu elucidated that his administration is using education as a tool to fight against poverty.
He, however, implored the US government to help developing countries in the fight against international crimes.
“We are working hard to eliminate terrorism, cybercrime, and extortion,” the president added.
“I am glad that we have a good number of agencies that are involved in reducing these crimes to the barest minimum, and they are also well represented at this meeting.”
Whilst speaking, the FBI director applauded Tinubu for supporting the growing collaboration between Nigerian agencies and the FBI in the fight against crimes.
“We appreciate the president’s vision in countering terrorism in the region, which is a dangerous threat not only to the countries in the region but also to the United States,” Wray said.
“We appreciate your vision in re-engineering the role of the office of the NSA to effectively coordinate efforts on counter-terrorism, and this has already started to bear fruit in terms of the success you are recording against ISIS in West Africa and other terrorist groups.”