…as developed nations record progress on crime reduction, prosecution with surveillance
Nigeria’s botched Close Circuit Television (CCTV) Project which cost the nation $470 million for installation in Lagos and Abuja, is a major reason for high insecurity levels in the states, as government has no record of law breakers, criminal offenders, street hawkers and other activities of menace perpetuated in public, Information Technology (IT) and security experts say.
CCTV, also known as surveillance camera, is the use of video cameras to constantly monitor activities in common areas, to discourage and detect crime.
The Federal Government awarded the CCTV contract to a Chinese vendor, ZTE Corporation in 2010 and made a first installment payment of $70.5 million (15 per cent) while China’s Exim Bank provided the balance of $399.5 million as a loan to be repaid at three per cent interest per annum, over a ten year period. The project is yet to be successfully tested or commissioned, however.
Jaiye Ashton, a public affairs analyst, says the CCTV project appears to have added nothing to Nigeria’s security outfit.
“The growing cases of armed robbery, traffic crimes, vandalism, rape, and most notably, terror attacks in major cities and the northern part of the country, could well be fuelled by the lack of CCTV technology to monitor public spaces, because we know physical monitoring in every area at all times and everyday, is almost impossible,” says Ashton .
Only about 2,000 cameras were installed by ZTE, and delivered to the former Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, representing only a fraction of the total expected. Of this number of cameras, the intercession between Kashim Ibrahim Way and Aminu Kano Crescent in Wuse 2 and various parts of Abuja, have been cited to have incomplete or broken down CCTV camera units.
Although the Federal Government did not say how many cameras were supposed to be installed, in a statement made available to the press, the House of Representatives committee set up to probe into the matter said; “Failure to complete the NPSCS contract has its attendant negative effect on the capacity of our security agencies to fight crime as they ought to do. The need to resolve the issue of the failed contract quickly and move forward will reposition the crime fighting capacity of our security agencies.”
This was made evident in the House of Representatives adhoc committee’s report which indicted three ministers and the permanent secretary who served between 2010 and 2014 in the Ministry of Police Affairs, which handled the CCTV project during the Goodluck Jonathan administration. This was after it was found by the committee set up to probe into the CCTV project that only 40 of the 1,000 cameras installed in Abuja were working.
In January 2017, Adamu Waziri, Caleb Olubolade and Jelili Adesiyan, as well as James Obeigbu former permanent secretary of the defunct ministry, were accused of mismanaging funds meant for the installation and maintenance of the cameras and might face trial if the government accepts a committee’s recommendation.
The use of surveillance cameras in countries such as the United Kingdom and United States of America, has been an added advantage to their security agencies, as recorded footages have been used as critical evidence in criminal cases, aiding police investigations.
Simon Adcock, of the British Security Industry Authority (BSIA) said; “Effective CCTV schemes are an invaluable source of crime detection and evidence for the police. For example, in 2009
95 per cent of Scotland Yard murder cases used CCTV footage as evidence.”
The BSIA, in 2013, estimated that there were up to 5.9million closed circuit television cameras in the country, including 750,000 in sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals and care homes, which have significantly helped to reduce crime over the years.
“There are so many cases that have been thrown out of court because the police or traffic officer has not been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt, that a traffic offence has actually been committed. Also, we have heard cases of innocent people in jail, just because they were unfortunate to be in the same area where a fight occurred, or there was a mob attack and the police just came to arrest everyone present,” Modupe Dabiri, a practicing lawyer told BusinessDay.
“Although some traffic officers have started taking pictures on their phones to use as evidence, it would have been easier and more reliable to get evidence from surveillance footage on the streets because sad as it is, not all officers have phones with camera features,” Dabiri added.
James Agada, Chief Executive Officer, Computer Warehouse Group, told BusinessDay in an interview that Nigeria’s insecurity levels are only this high because the government is not ready to use technology to curb criminal activities.
“We are still relying on old methods, when the world has gone far beyond that. Activities and footprints can always be traced in the digital space. Apart from CCTV, if you look at the case of the United States, when they were trying to catch Osama Bin-laden, they used all sorts of technology to trace him, they even tracked his phone calls. Here, we are still unable to find Abubakar Shekau who keeps releasing videos but we can’t track him,” Agada told BusinessDay.
A 2009 analysis by Northeastern University in the USA and the University of Cambridge in the UK, on public area CCTV and crime prevention in UK and some cities in USA, found that surveillance systems were most effective in parking lots, where their use resulted in a 51 percent decrease in crime, public transportation areas saw a 23 percent decrease in crimes and systems in public settings saw a 7 percent decrease in crimes.
Experts say however, in Nigeria, where in some instances, motorists have been asked to pay to park in public parking lots, cars are still being parked at owner’s risk and in the case of theft, vandalism or high jack, there may be no recorded evidence to catch criminals.
A source close to Lagos State Government told BusinessDay that Federal Government projects cannot be relied on and that Lagos State is stepping out of the pack of Nigeria’s 36 states, to establish its own organised policing systems and is planning to install 13,000 CCTV cameras across the state this year.
“The Federal Government never commissioned the installed cameras, nobody saw them work, and they claim that 1,000 cameras were installed in Lagos in 2012,” our source said.
Amisor Onu, Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) who represented the Inspector-General of Police at the probe trial, acknowledged that there was a building housing the control switch and other facilities of the National Public Security Communications Systems (NPSCS), also known as CCTV project at the Police Headquarters in Abuja.
“The building is there as we speak. Since we came on board, nothing is functioning there and there is no fuel to run the control room,” he said.
