‘Buahri should revisit $470m Lagos, Abuja CCTV project’

President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to beam his anti-corruption searchlight on the $470 million Close Circuit Television (CCTV) contract awarded in 2010 to a Chinese vendor, ZTE Corporation.

The contract covered the provision CCTV in Lagos and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to address the growing security concerns in the country.

To finance the project, the Federal Government made a first instalment of $70.5 million (15%) while China’s Exim Bank provided the balance of $399.5 million as a loan to be repaid at 3 percent interest per annum over a 10-year period.

Today, though some 2,000 cameras have been installed by ZTE, representing but a fraction of the total expected, the project is yet to be successfully tested or commissioned.

Jaiye Ashton, a social critic, has alleged that the project was bedevilled by dysfunctional systems and components, broken units occasioned by explosions from installed batteries of the CCTV cameras. Ashton cited an intercession between the Kashim Ibrahim Way and Aminu Kano Crescent in Wuse 2, as well as incomplete units at various parts of Abuja, saying the CCTV project appears to have added nothing to the arsenal available to Nigeria’s security outfit.

According to Ashton, the inability of the contractor to deliver the project has been further underscored by the growing cases of armed theft, traffic crimes, vandalism, rape, and most notably, terror attacks in the major cities and the Northern part of the country.

But in a reaction, ZTE has consistently denied doing any wrong. The firm said it delivered the project to the Nigeria Police Force, at Force Headquarters, Abuja, adding that running and maintaining the equipment now rests with Nigerians.

“Electricity remains a major challenge in the country. So, fuelling the equipment must have posed a big challenge to the law enforcement agency saddled with the management of the equipment. On whether the project was delivered or not, there is no gainsaying that fact. It was delivered to the former Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar,” a source close to the firm explained.

 

Ashton said the botched project should be treated simultaneously with ongoing “Dasukigate,” because it was similar to diversion of funds earmarked to bolster the country’s fight against terrorism.

He alleged that Zambia terminated a $210 million CCTV contract with the company in 2013 over corruption allegation.

 

Jumoke Akiyode