The Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, is arriving in Abuja on Tuesday on a two-day official visit to Nigeria.

A statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by Mr Sylvester Atere, Outreach and Communications Officer, UNODC, said Fedotov’s visit to Nigeria is in furtherance of the long-standing excellent partnership between UNODC and the country.

Atere said Fedetov visit would focus on support for Nigeria in the areas of anti-corruption, terrorism prevention and drug control with a balanced health-focused approach.

He said other focused-areas of the visit would be to strengthen criminal justice sector and the rule of law in Nigeria and the ECOWAS sub-region as a whole.

“Fedotov will hold high-level meetings with top government officials and strategic Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) of the Government of Nigeria as well as with the President of ECOWAS.

“Nigeria and UNODC enjoy cordial relationship since almost three decades. Nigeria has ratified the three UN Conventions on Drugs, 15 out of the 19 international legal instruments on terrorism.

“This is in addition to the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and the UN Convention against Corruption, which are UN Conventions that are under the global mandate of UNODC,” he said.

Atere said UNODC works with some 50 Government partners in Nigeria, at Federal and State levels as well as with civil society organisations in the implementation of the Conventions.

“Nigeria is one of UNODC’s priority countries, with a large and comprehensive portfolio in the areas of anti-corruption, the response to drugs and related organised crime, justice sector reform, anti-human trafficking/migrant smuggling and counter terrorism.

“The programme is funded by the EU in the amount of about 100 million dollars and constitutes UNODC’s largest technical assistance portfolio in Africa and the third world wide.

Other international partners of UNODC in Nigeria are Germany, Japan and Switzerland.
He said among the major landmark technical support UNODC has provided in Nigeria, is the support to the development, drafting and reviewing of new laws.

Other areas is the recently enacted Administration of Justice Act; Extradition Act (Modification) Order, 2014; as well as new legislation against human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

According to him, the laws are in line with the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and its protocols.

Presently, UNODC is also assisting Nigeria’s efforts in updating its piracy/maritime crimes law and in reinforcing the criminal justice response to these crimes, he said. (NAN)