Alarmed by the increasing wave of insurgency activities in the country, the House of Representatives, on Thursday, resolved to probe the failure of a Chinese firm, ZTE Corporation, to install Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in Abuja and Lagos following the contract awarded to the firm in 2010 for $470million (about N76billion) by the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The House also urged the federal, state and local governments to install or reactivate CCTV cameras and other security gadgets in the FCT, state capitals and major cities across the nation that could detect and alert security agencies of any breach of security at any time.
The resolutions followed a motion moved by Honourables Adekoya Adesegun Abdul-Majid and Abiodun Faleke demanding “for the reactivation/Installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in Abuja, state capitals and major cities and investigation of the failure of ZTE Corporation to complete the contract of installing the cameras in Abuja and Lagos.”
Adekoya, while moving the motion at the plenary, expressed concern about the state of the CCTV cameras installed in Abuja by ZTE Corporation after it procured a contract in 2010 to do same in Lagos with both costing $470 million.
Debating the motion, lawmakers described it as timely and long overdue but proposed different amendments to the prayers with a view to strengthening the resolutions further.
The Majority Leader, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, argued that the issue came up on the floor of the House in the seventh Assembly and was debated with resolutions passed, but nothing was done.
The motion was amended and passed unanimously when put to voice vote by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, who presided over plenary with the resolve to set up an ad hoc committee that would investigate the matter and report back to the House within four weeks for further legislation.
-Tribune
