Government laid back posture in the deployment of round the clock surveillance of our communities with the global trend of close circuit television CCTV to capture crime real time has been shrugged off, and following after is a demand on all tiers of government in Nigeria to adopt the world approach to combat crime.
The President, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Dr. (Mrs.) Bola Onigboji, said this in Lagos, when the Council provided platform for African Alliance Insurance Company to use its Members Evening to host brokers. She said that the federal, states and local governments should come to terms to use CCTV in communities to assist the law enforcement agencies keep crime rate down.
She noted with dismay the increasing spate of insecurity in the country, and the need to go digital in fighting crime beyond the scene of crime; but also track the sponsors and team leaders of crime that the footage CCTV could provide with a delude of leads lead to the masterminds behind what is captured by digital installations.
She said the perpetrators have become ubiquitous and no day passes without reported cases of kidnapping, killing, terrorism and other criminal cases and this could serve as a handout to local and foreign investors to stay away. Redirecting investors and sundry back will require a huge chunk of effort from a rebut National Orientation Agency to change peoples mindset and government especially the federal level match and surpass the stream of persuasion from NOA.
As a stakeholder NCRIB needs to speak up and she asserts: “Since there is a correlation between insurance and economic growth, it is most auspicious for the NCRIB to join its voices to the need to call on government to put in more efforts to combat security challenges in the country. “We are using this medium to call on federal government to overhaul its security apparatus while at the same time enhancing collaboration with governments and institutions both within and outside the country to put an end to this menace.
“It is expedient to eulogize the federal government on its decision to change all the service chiefs, we enjoin the newly appointed service chiefs to brace up to the challenge and ensure the challenge of insecurity is tackled head-on,” she said.
It would be recalled that the federal government awarded a $450 m contract to a Chinese firm ZTE about seven years ago to install solar powered CCTV cameras in Abuja and Lagos, the carcass of their mounted steel structures now rot away at various junctions and contract abandoned. It has been a subject of National Assembly Committee flip intervention and seeming abandoned issue.
