The Federal Government has entered into a contact with with Huawei to develop a robust e-land border management system that will deal with close to half of border surveillance.
The Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, who disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday in an interview with newsmen, said the e-land border surveillance will facilitate effective monitoring of activities at the borders from Abuja.
Already, the contract has been awarded and funds are being sourced for the take off of the project.
“We are engaged in a contractual deal with Huawei to develop a robust e-land border management system that will deal with close to half of border surveillance which will make possible for us in Abuja to know at the press of button what is happening in Ileila or any of the borders that will be covered by that system.
“The contract has been awarded, what we are working on now is the funding and that is at a very advanced stage,’’Persecondnews quotes the minister as saying.
Describing the nation’s borders as artificial, Aregbesola said: “ Let me be clear and remind us of the fact that our boundaries are artificial. And those of us who have traveled or related to communities at the border posts, I know of a particular village in Ogun where the boundary between Nigeria and Benin Republic cuts the palace of the traditional ruler of that town into two.
“When people mention porous border, I ask myself do they really understand what they are talking about. They are talking about boundaries that are very artificial in some cases and therefore very difficult to Police outside police engagement strategy.
“There is nothing known to law that can prevent cross-border movements because the same community is now located in two different countries through the artificialty of the boundary.
“ So we are increasing our engagement with the community. We are going to involve a robust engagement strategy involving communities critical stakeholders, leaders in identifying elements that are dangerous to the security of the country on either side of the border.
“As we are increasing our competence and deployment of technology at the air border, we are doing the same at the land border.’’
The minister said 14 forward operation basis had been activated at the land borders, adding “what we need to do is about far more but four forward operation bases with arm patrol are already in operation, I have commissioned some.’’
On the threats posed by herders coming from the neighbouring countries, Aregbesola said the ministry was collaborating with the security agencies including the State Security Service, Police and the military to address the issue.
“We are conscious of the threats posed by criminal elements posing as herders coming from the neighbouring countries and we are really up to it together with other security agencies namely the Police, the SSS, the NIA and the military.
“We are working to prevent any incursion into our country of elements that threaten our security and this is not limited to land border. As we are critical and alert at the land borders, we are equally doing a lot of work at the maritime end, preventing piracy and any undue incursion of our territory at that end just as we are equally committed to preventing elements that are unwanted from entering through the air or the air borders,’’ he said.
Answering another question on the activities of the Department of Fire Service under his ministry, Aregbesola disclosed that it had saved N1. 629 trillion from June to October 2019.
According to him, the Federal Fire Service responded to 2, 615 calls, saved 724 lives.
He said:“We evaluate this within the operational competence of the Fire service to evaluate worth of property so as to put clear information and message of their activities and what they have done.
“In their intervention therefore what this means is that they have prevented destruction of assets worth N1. 629 trillion between June and October 2019,while saving 724 lives and responded to 2215 fire calls.’’
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