Governor Chief Willie Obiano of Anambra state will on Friday this week inaugurate super-smart closed-circuit cameras (CCTVs) in three of its major cities of the state.
According to the governor, the CCTVs are to be installed in Awka, Nnewi and Onitsha, while other cities of the state will come later.
The government in a statement signed by the State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment Mr C.Don Adinuba and was made available to TribuneOnline on Wednesday in Awka Anambra state capital said the state was committed to using advanced technology to protect lives and property.
“The Government of Anambra state has decided to fight crime with the latest technology anywhere in the world,” he said.
According to Adinuba, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu Abubakar, is expected to personally grace the commissioning of the Anambra State’s technology-driven security initiative, the Smart City project, known as the second phase of Operation Kpochapu ( Operation Wipe Out Crime).
He said: “The Smart City Security Project was inspired by the governor’s visit to Massachusetts, United States, in October 2018, when he toured places like the Cambridge Innovation Centre, Boston University and Industrial Video and Control in Boston.
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“He was struck among other things, the sophisticated surveillance cameras from Industrial Video and Control, developed in conjunction with researchers at the Cambridge Innovation Centre and other research centres in Massachusetts. These products proved effective in helping the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to identify the two brothers from originally Kyrgyzstan, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, that on April 15, 2013, bombed participants in the annual Boston Marathon, killed three persons and injured many others, including 16 who lost their legs.”
According to him, the advanced surveillance cameras from Industrial Video and Control are not yet in some American cities and even states.
“Governor Obiano felt that they should be installed in Anambra State so that it will remain Nigeria’s safest state and as a result attract considerable investments. To operate effectively for 24 hours daily, these gadgets require electricity which unfortunately is not always available in Nigeria. The governor consequently opted for the solar-powered type,” he added.
Adinuba further stated that 109 vehicles have been procured and equipped with state of the art electronic devices to work in unison with the super-smart gadgets.
The commissioner said that the state government in its resolved position to fight crimes has chosen to deploy advanced technology to show the government’s commitment to crimes fighting.
“In the more developed countries of the world, technology has proved immensely useful in crime detection and prevention. We have already cited the example of how FBI’s use of the latest surveillance cameras from the Cambridge Innovation Centre assisted to unmask the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers,” he said.
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