By Francis Kadiri
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA has joined the call for Nigeria to be more committed to the use of digital forensics as a viable system for criminal investigations, saying that ‘digital forensic is the future of criminal investigation’ the world over.
The Head, Forensic and Intel Analyst, NDLEA, Mr. Adebowale Abdulrahman, who represented the organisation, made the call in Abuja on Wednesday, at a digital forensics workshop organised by MSAB Nigeria.
The expert said; “It has become obvious that in a large number of recent investigations into crime, the mobile devices of suspects have been useful to investigating officers by serving as sources for reliable evidence.
“Investigators are very often able to extract evidence of a suspect’s culpability from mobile phones and other digital devices like wrist watches and tablets.”
The Intel Forensic and Digital Analyzer, who was a top rank intelligence officer at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport said, “There is no doubt that digital forensics will play a key role in investigative efforts being made to address most terrorist cases currently going on in the north eastern parts of the country,” adding that digital forensics will remarkable help to give accurate suggestions while analyzing intelligence.
He commended security agencies for successfully rescuing the father of the ADC to President Muhammadu Buhari saying that government needs to be even more committed to deploying innovative technologies as it will help security agencies to fight crime. According to him, evidence remains an important factor in the courts of law.
Explaining the great role that digital forensics has played in the determination of cases by the courts of law, the MSAB-certified investigator said: “Digital forensics is an aspect of forensics that allows security agents to recover reliable information from suspects during criminal investigation.”
“In some cases when we try to prosecute some cases in court, at the end of the day, if you are unable to find incriminating evidence against the suspect, the only evidence that you are likely to be able to lay hands on is evidence from the suspect’s phone,” he said, adding that call records from mobile service providers have been reliable source of evidence against suspects.
Discussing the advantages of digital forensics, he said: “Digital forensic can help investigators get such evidence that cannot be denied by the specific suspect.”
“Of course some suspects would initially deny ownership of their own mobile devices and tablets, but when investigators extract evidence from such devices, it become impossible for criminals to deny their involvement in crime because the information extracted from the devices would completely prove the culpability of the suspect.”
He said in most cases especially within the past eight years, the use of digital forensics made it easy for investigators to provide evidence in court that have led to conviction of suspect, adding that until the emergence of digital forensics, it was not easy to tender evidence in courts.
He charged security agencies to join the innovation in criminal investigation by embracing the opportunities afforded by innovations in digital one of which is the XRY8.0, the latest innovation in MSAB products.
Sales Manager, Benelux Africa and Central Europe, MSAB Sweden, Rudy Owen said there are currently over one thousand profiles to extract information from mobile phones, wrist watches, tablets adding that mobile phones constitute ninety eight percent of the organisations business. According to him, XRY8.0 is the latest innovation in MSAB products, stating that MSAB is totally focused on continuous innovations in mobile forensics.
Stakeholders at the conference agreed that by embracing innovative systems designed to fight crime by providing reliable evidence, nations will be safer. Among the innovations are XRY, XAMN and XEC among others, stating that in order to embark on reliable and reliable judgment, it is important to take advantage of emerging innovation in the security sphere.
“MSAB has shipped over twenty-one thousand kits till date, and have customers in over one hundred and twenty nine countries,” he said, adding that the product has been fully adopted by the United Kindgom Police.”
