While the Federal Government of Nigeria has pushed aside the National Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Project, private companies have increased deployment and use of these monitors for increased security.
BusinessDay finds that more private offices, shopping malls, night clubs, restaurants and even individual homes are stepping up use of surveillance cameras to track footage of daily happenings and reduce criminal activities in such premises.
CCTV, also known as a surveillance camera, is the use of video cameras to constantly monitor activities in common areas, to prevent crime.
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The Federal Government had contracted a project for CCTV deployment and maintenance of cameras on streets and public spaces in the cities of Lagos and Abuja years back. A project which they said cost the nation about $470 million.
The reason for this undertaking was to reduce the high insecurity levels in the states, as the government has no record of lawbreakers, criminal offenders, street hawkers and other activities of menace perpetrated in public, Information Technology (IT) and security experts say.
Jaiye Ashton, a public affairs analyst said that; “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 fueled by the lack of CCTV technology to monitor public spaces, because we know physical monitoring in every area at all times and every day, is almost impossible.”
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Very recently, Davido, a famous Nigerian musician was accused of being an accomplice in the dumping of his friend, Tagbo’s lifeless body in front of a General Hospital after the Police found the used pick up the van in his residence. However, the recorded CCTV footage from the night club where they visited before Tagbo’s death, showed that the musician and the deceased left in separate cars at different times. The General Hospital had no CCTV camera installed outside to see who actually drove the deceased to the hospital.
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,” Agada told BusinessDay.
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The use of surveillance cameras in countries such as the United Kingdom and the 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 that country, including 750,000 in sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals and care homes, which have significantly helped to reduce crime over the years.
Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson
