By Suleima Umaru
Worried by the increasing activities of kidnappers and other violent cries in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, may have informed why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the emergency procurement and installation of Close Circuit Televisions, CCTV, in the Nigerian Capital city to track the kidnappers.
Nyensom Wike , a former governor of Rivers state and minister of FCT, who had been under pressure from the residents to make the city safe for business had aid that the procurement of the digital tracking tools will help to halt kidnappers in their tracks. The former Rivers state governor who could not hide his feelings had said that that the procurement of the digital tracking tools would mark a turning point in the fight against banditry and kidnappers in FCT and its environs.
An elated Wike said the purchase and installation of the digital tracking equipment at strategic locations in FCT, will enable the security agencies, comprising of the Nigerian Police Force,NPF, under the close watch of Kayode Egbetokun and the Lt. General Taoreed Lagbaja, led Nigerian Army including the Department of State Security, DSS and National Intelligence Agency, NIA, personnel to track he Criminals in their hideouts in the city.
Aware that there are some difficult terrains in the city which vehicles may not access for the security agencies personnel to do their job may have given the FCT minister the encouragement to take the bold initiative to provide motorcycles to ease specific movements of the security operatives to enable them tackle insecurity in FCT.
Admitted that the installation of the CCTV Camera in strategic locations in the nation’s capital city would go a long way to reduce crime, the FCT, minister had said that it may not achieve the desired purpose without the cooperation and support of the four states that borders the city. He had alluded to Nasarawa, Kogi, Kaduna and Niger, home state of Ibrahim Babangida, a retired Army General and former Nigerian military President.
There are fears in both official and unofficial circles that the installation of the multi-million dollars, CCTV Camera systems in Abuja metropolis might be another white elephant project. This is because the previous Administration of late President Umaru Yar’Adua which had initiated the project that was said to have been inherited by former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan amnd Muhammadu Buhari, a Katsina state born politician could not implement it. .
Shehu Sani, a –one time Senator of Federal Republic of Nigeria, had said that Late Yar’Adua former Nigerian President, had borrowed the sum of $460 million from the Asian country of China –EXIM bank for the purpose of improving the security situation in the FCT by installing CCTV camera system in the city. The contract for the installation of the CCTV camera system in the sprawling growing Abuja city was said to have been awarded to ZTE Communications, a Chinese firm .
Olusegun Aganga, the then minister of Finance under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration who had given Nigerians the assurance that the project is on the priority list of the government turned out to be an empty promise until Muhammadu Buhari, the immediate past Nigerian President handed over power to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his successor, on May 29, 2023. This is because both the money and the Camera were essentially kidnapped by elements of previous governments’ as alleged by an aggrieved Senator Sani’.
The inability of the late Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Buhari’s Administrations to execute the multi—million dollar project in a space of 14 years may have informed why Bandits turned Kidnappers are still operating in the FCT, till date. The worsening security situation in the city is so worrisome that residents are no longer finding funny.
The ninth House of Representatives under the Leadership of Femi Gbajabiamila, now Chief of Staff , CS, to President Tinubu, had pledged to investigate the borrowed $460 million from the Chinese –EXIM bank , particular, questioning why the digital security tools were not operational years after obtaining the loan but that was how far the House could go.
Given the inability of the Nigerian government to implement the installation of the multi-million dollar Abuja metropolis CCTV Camera system may have given the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, room to drag the then Buhari’s government to an Abuja High Court to account for the $460 million loan in May 2023, barely one month to the end of second term in office of the then President Buhari.
.The trial Judge, Justic Emeka NNwite, in his Judgment had ordered the government ‘’to publish the total amount of money that was said to have been paid to ZTE, a Chinese Communications Company and other local companies contractors . The government was said to have also been ordered to give the specific details of the entities of the Companies and other contractors involved in the implementation of the Abuja CCTV Project.
The 10th Senate under the Leadership of Godswill Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom state appear to have followed the footsteps of Gbajabia mila, led ninth House of Representatives by giving his words to probe the abandoned installation of the CCTTV Cameras in the Abuja metropolis , 14 years after the contract was awarded to ZTE, a Chinese Communications company.
The Akpabio led 10th Senate may have taken the bold initiative to probe the $460 million loan by Late Yar’Adua government because of the increased kidnapping and other security challenges that still persist in the FCT.
While the Nigerian government is still making moves to actualize the implementation of the CCTV Camera system project in Abuja metropolis 14 years after it was initiated by late President Yar’Adua, Peter Obi , a former governor of Anambra state and Presidential Candidate of Labour Party , in the country’s February 25, 2023, Presidential election is worried over the escalating insecurity issues in Abuja, the Seat of power and other states of the Federation.
The LP, Presidential Candidate was said, was said to have made President Tinubu, who had travelled to France on a private visit to understand that over 3,600 kidnappings and nearly 9,000 conflict –related deaths in 2023 alone. The number of kidnap cases, in the country and the need for the government to step up security of the country.The former Anambra state governor fears the number of the kidnapped cases would increase in lips and bounds this 2024.
This is evident with the recent happening at Tashar Naguelle Community, in Batsari Local Government Area, of Katsina, home state of former Pesident Buhari, where a band of Bandits Group motorists made up of over 100 men stormed the village and kidnapped over 30 people.
The kidnap of no fewer than 30 people in the Katsina state Community may be a child’s play compared to the fresh attack in Kwahaslalek village in Magu Local Government Area of the north central state of Plateau state where over 30 people were killed and several others kidnapped and taken to unknown location by armed gun men. The Kwahaslalek village attack by gun men was said to come on heels of the recent security the President was said to have held with NuhuRibabu, the National Security Adviser, NSA, and the service Chiefs including other security and intelligence Agency Chiefs to develop comprehensive security measures to address the country’s prevailing security challenges.
The gun men attacks on the Plateau state Community is a clear justification for the Tinubu’s government to move fast to devise new security strategies to protect lives and property in the late Solomon Lar, a former Chairman of the Opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP’s home state. Musa Abdullahi Kirshi, a member of the House of Representatives who may have spoken the mind of Abbas Tajudeen , the Speaker , who is angered over the recurring gunmen attacks in in Comunities Magu Local Government Area of Plateau state had said that the lower Chamber would take ‘’strong position against banditary to stop the killings and restore ever lasting peace in the state’’.
Additional report by Lateef Adegbite
