Daily Independent (Lagos)
3 January 2009
The 25 Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras installed in strategic parts of Abuja, which have remained dormant for lack of maintenance will now be made functional, Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mohammed Adamu Aliero, has said.
Aliero said at a meeting with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mike Okiro, in Abuja that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) would refurbish all the CCTV cameras in the capital city, which have been under the supervision of the Nigeria Police Force.
He said the cameras are vital surveillance gadgets to the police in crime detection and will certainly help in monitoring the movement of suspects.
Most of the CCTV cameras became dormant because of poor maintenance. Sources also informed our correspondent that no money was earmarked for the maintenance and no functional mechanism of maintaining was set up. Sources at the Force Headquarters told Saturday Independent that the CCTV cameras automatically stop functioning whenever there is power outage because their various Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) units have broken down.
Our correspondent also learnt that most of the batteries of the Sony High Speed Dome (HSD) cameras have run down, while the two monitor computers receiving signals from the cameras at the Force Headquarters also have no reliable UPS.
The IGP had earlier in his address informed the minister that both the CCTV cameras and the helicopter donated to the police by the FCTA need maintenance.
He said the pilot to fly the helicopter has to be trained in South Africa and an engineer has to be employed for its maintenance.
The minister however assured the IGP that "the helicopter was recently donated to the police by the FCTA and will be made functional."
On the traffic congestion in Abuja, the FCT minister urged police to cooperate with other stakeholders in traffic management to address the matter, saying that the problem may worsen if action is not taken.
The minister also spoke on the crime situation in the FCT, stressing that the FCTA would meet with the governors of Nasarawa, Kogi, Benue, Niger and Kaduna states to discuss crime matters.
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