Four members of staff of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), have been certified as International Polygraph examiners having successfully completed the forensic psycho physiologist examiner curriculum of the Academy for Scientific Investigative Training.
The Academy for Scientific Investigative Training (ASIT), is accredited by the American Polygraph Association and International Society of Polygraph Examiners.
The Chairman of ICPC, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, SAN, OFR, who spoke at the graduation ceremony held at the Commission’s headquarters, was delighted as he affirmed that the success of the first stream of training which previously, added to the Commission’s work was what encouraged ICPC to initiate this second stream, and many more will come.
According to him, polygraphing has changed the way and manner work is being done in ICPC and has also added positive value to the Commission’s reputation to the extent that the Commission now gets so many requests for assistance in profiling people who are being considered for very important public service appointments.
“We have had visitations from even other law enforcement agencies, who want to have a look at what we are doing and to improve on what we are doing, so this is the niche for us, if it were not so we will not be expanding the facilities and spending more money”, he added.
Prof. Owasanoye also stated that with this stream of training, the Commission now has 7 certified polygraph examiners and the Commission would be opening a polygraph unit in its Lagos office with a view to set up units in each of the 6 geopolitical zones in the country.
He therefore thanked, the contractor for being part of the reform process the commission is going through and for also coming up with new ideas especially in reviewing the work of previous polygraphers in this session to enable the new trainees have a good insight to the work.
“To the trainees who have crossed the rubicon, congratulations, I am happy that we have no hitch this time and we have done gender balancing, out of the 7 people we have trained, 3 are women”, he remarked.
It is worth mentioning that the four trainees also acquired specialized skills in Phone analytics, Cellebrite UFED Forensic and Encase Forensic and as such the Commission continually provides opportunities for staff to acquire such specialized skills and upgrade on existing ones.
Earlier on, the Instructor, Mr. Tuvia Shurany, Assistant Director, ASIT, expressed his gratitude to the Commission for trusting the Academy to train and present professionals certified to practice as forensic experts.