LCCI Seeks Surveillance Infrastructure To Track Planned Crimes
With the increasing security concerns in the country, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has sought the installation of surveillance infrastructure capable of warning about emergencies to foil planned crimes.
The body also wants more technology deployment to gather intelligence, provide 24-hours responsive surveillance, and track persons’ movements and activities, especially in already troubled areas.
The chamber made the requests in reaction to the deadly attack on the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) Abuja-Kaduna train in which eight were killed and many abducted.
The incident is frightening and increasingly threatening to the well-being of Nigerians, according to the LCCI.
“In the face of these challenges, the Lagos Chamber wishes to state that Nigeria needs a surveillance infrastructure that is monitored in real-time to respond to emergencies and foil planned crimes”, noted Michael Olawale-Cole,
President of the LCCI.
The LCCI said the attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train has raised fear about the ability of the country to attract new FDIs inflow in both short and long terms while wanton killings and increased kidnapping in the country will prevent Nigerians from freely choosing the right candidate for the next year’s general polls.
“The surging insecurity and profound attacks will not make it possible to hold credible, free, and fair elections that would reflect the choices of the electorates about whom their leaders should be”, the LCCI boss also stated.
“On behalf of the business community, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry is concerned about the current insecurity crisis because of its impact on businesses and the economy”.
Between 2009 and the present time, nearly 350,000 people have been killed in the North-Eastern part of the country owing to the activities of Boko Haram Islamist insurgents. Currently, the number of displaced people in the Lake Chad Basin is close to three million.
Insecurity in Nigeria is multidimensional and pervasive, ranging from armed banditry, kidnapping, attacks on state infrastructure, perennial herder-farmer clashes to gang violence, attacks on police stations, prisons, airports, and power transformers, intercommunal violence, ritual killings, mob justice, and casual intimidation of ordinary citizens by the law enforcement agents. In the South-South region.
He said this has put the government on an economic war front where it struggles to maintain the peace required to achieve optimal crude oil exploration for forex earnings.
Nigeria earns about 80 per cent of its foreign exchange earnings from the oil and gas sector and, citing the report of the 2021 Global Peace Index by the Institute for Peace and Economy, which ranked Nigeria at 146 out of 163 countries, the LCCI Boss said such may scare away prospective FDIs.
The Global Peace reports place Nigeria as being only better than countries like Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Russia, which are typically known to have been conflicting areas for a long time.
Olawale-Cole’s fear that the security challenges have spiralled into general lawlessness and anarchy, is also buttressed by the Global Conflict Tracker hosted by the United States Council on Foreign relations that recorded attacks by bandits across the North-West area of Nigeria have claimed at least 5,000 lives since 2018.
The LCCI chieftain also exconflictingconcerns about the political agitations in the South-East, and secessionist agitations in the South-West.
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