Nigeria’s Catherine Ugorji selected for UN Woman Police Officer Of The Year Award

Catherine Ugorji of the Nigeria Police Force serving with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), has been selected by the United Nations as one of two runners-up for the prestigious UN Woman Police Officer of the Year award for 2020.

Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, in a statement by Oluseyi Soremekun, the National Information Officer of the UN System in Nigeria, said Ugorji exemplifies the best of UN policing.

Of the 1,300 UN policewomen deployed in UN peacekeeping operations, 21 were nominated for the award.

Ugorji joined the Nigeria Police Force in 2003 and served as a criminal investigator from the local to regional level, Child Protection Officer, Divisional Crime Officer up to Acting Deputy Commander of the Ogudu Police Division in Lagos.

UN Police Advisor, Luis Carrilho, congratulated Ugorji for being chosen as a runner-up and described her leadership of “three Formed Police Units (FPU) in Gao” as remarkable.

The year’s winner, Chief Inspector Doreen Malambo of Zambia, who serves with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), will receive the award during a virtual ceremony presided over by Mr Lacroix on Tuesday, 3 November.

Superintendent Rebecca Nnanga of Cameroon, serving with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), is the other runner-up.