January 22, (THEWILL) – President Bola Tinubu has approved emergency procurement of digital tracking tools to help halt kidnappers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike disclosed this to newsmen in Abuja, on Monday.
“Before we came on board, the police had said that they had requested procurement of a certain number of motorcycles where vehicles cannot get to the remote and mountainous areas. Unfortunately, they were not provided but we are going to do that now.
“So many facilities were not provided. Vehicles for the security agencies are not there. You cannot believe that equipment to track criminals is not there. When anything happens, they go back to the Office of the National Security Adviser or the Force Headquarters. That is not the way it is supposed to be.
“When I was the Governor of Rivers state, the DSS told me they wanted a particular piece of equipment. We were the only state that had it then. Sometimes the headquarters asked for its use. That is a special equipment they needed and that equipment, we know how expensive it is but we had it and that was able to help us reduce the level of crime. It was able to track the specific phones, not one that would say for example the criminals are around the city here. With that equipment, it was specific. It can track a particular phone to the exact spot or room. So, what we have done with the approval of Mr President, giving us approval for emergency procurement, we have been able to identify what each of the agencies need and we will be able now to provide them.
“Assuming Mr President did not approve this emergency procurement, we had been to the Bureau for Public Procurement since December to allow it to procure under emergency. If you don’t and you have to go through the whole process, it can take you two months and that is not what you tell members of the public, that the procurement process is a problem.
“So, what we have done with the approval of Mr President, giving us approval for emergency procurement, we have been able to identify what each of the agencies need and we will be able now to provide them.
“Security is not just this equipment. You also have to motivate the personnel. I don’t want to talk about the strategies because we are talking about security now”, the Minister said.
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