Since the Kaduna State Government revealed that it has earmarked over N2.55bn to procure CCTV cameras and drones, to provide adequate security cover in the state in 2017, followers of the sector have been asking critical question on whether the Mallam Nasir el-Rufai lead government beat other in coming to terms where others failed.
Before the Kaduna State government came up with the scheme, saying “More than N1.5 billion of the amount was earmarked for the procurement and installation of CCTV cameras in strategic areas of the state to reduce crime,” the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Lagos State have failed as over $800,000mn spend for similar scheme in Abuja went into drainpipes till now.
In Lagos, over N5bn public fund was spent to mount solar-powered CCTV in strategic parts of Lagos but none is transmitting any signal to the dedicated Central Processing Unit at Ikeja till today.
As at today, investigations show that more than 85% of the infrastructure in both Lagos and Abuja are not function.
It would be recalled that the said N2.5bn is contained in the state’s 2017 budget document currently before the state House of Assembly.
Governor el_Rufai said, “The N1.5 billion is for procurement and distribution of CCTV cameras for monitoring and surveillance towards reducing criminal activities within the metropolis and securing the state.”
Atop the CCTV budget, the government has also allocated N265m for the procurement of drones to identify locations of armed bandits in forest reserves across the state.”
The document indicated that the government would also spend N193.6m to secure the state from the menace of kidnappers.
The2017 budget document currently before the state House of Assembly said the money would be used to procure “geo-position interceptor and location of GSM, UMTS system to check trends, intercept and locate kidnappers’ GSM calls.”
