US bomb alert: FG orders 24-hour surveillance

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Latest Politics Thursday, November 10th, 2011

To curb the activities of Boko Haram and other anti-state groups, the Federal Government has ordered a 24-hour surveillance around all hotels that have over 50 rooms capacity in the country while all public infrastructure and private recreational centres would now to be manned by plain clothes security operatives.

The order, which emanated from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), General Andrew Azazi (retd), following the security alert issued by the United States (US) Government to its citizens to steer clear of some prominent hotels in Abuja, also include the immediate installation of top security equipment in the country, before the end of November.

The Federal Government it was also gathered, has begun discussing with border countries on the need for a mutual cooperation in dealing with the emerging security challenges along the border towns and cities within the West African sub-region.

The multi-billion-naira state of the art security equipment was designed to help the security services tackle emerging security challenges in the country and would serve the Army, Air Force, Navy, the State Security Services (SSS), Police office of the NSA and other arms of the security services.
The project, which was coming under the National Public Security Communication System and costing the Federal Government about N10 billion, was fashioned along the line of the Global System of Telecommunications (GSM).
It was leant that the security equipment which would be principally coordinated by the office of the NSA, has installed line capacity exceeding MTN and Globacom combined and that when fully deployed, it has an excess of over one million lines.

Azazi, on the directive of President Goodluck Jonathan, has further ordered Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) of government to volunteer capable personnel to be trained by his office on counter-terrorism and emergency response strategies who would manage related security issues in the respective MDAs to complement the efforts of key security agencies in the country.

It was also gathered from a reliable source that, the new security equipment was to complement the already existing tracking device put into operation few months ago by the police as well as the over 2000 units of Close Circuit Televisions (CCTV) that were being installed in Abuja and Lagos and the Aerial Unmanned Vehicles (AUVs) which were also expected to be deplored in the nation’s borders.

A reliable Presidency source who spoke on condition of anonymity who said the decision to go public with what government has been doing behind the scene to secure lives and properties was to boost the public confidence. It was further disclosed that the different security agencies under the officer of the NSA have intensified physical security checks across the FCT and major cities across the country as well as deployment of intelligences personnel to busy hotels and offices across the country.

“We are doing our best to ensure that we protect the lives and property of the citizenry and foreigners in this country. Once the entire new security apparatus is put into use, you can be sure that these criminals causing so much trouble for the government will be taken care of adequately,” the presidency source said.

While calling on Nigerians to ensure that the war on terrorism was not left for the government alone to handle, the source appealed, “the fight on terrorism should be a collective one because the man or woman who has turned himself or herself into a weapon of destruction is difficult to monitor. So every Nigerian should consider this fight his or her own. It must not be left for the government to fight alone.”

-Sunwp_posts