Insecurity: Defence minister proposes technology-driven tollgates on main highways

The Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd.), has proposed the return of tollgates on main highways, saying trendy expertise may make them helpful instruments for monitoring actions and tackling felony actions.

Musa argued that automated toll techniques would allow safety businesses to seize car registration particulars, monitor visitors alongside interstate routes and hint suspects with out counting on cash-based transactions.

In an announcement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Leah Katung-Babatunde, the minister described the elimination and demolition of tollgates throughout the nation as a safety setback.

He made the proposal whereas talking on the Abuja Round Table, themed Promise to Proof: The Renewed Hope Conversation. He participated in a session inspecting methods to guard lives and livelihoods and make communities safer for farming, travelling and business actions.

“With modern Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and automation, toll collection no longer requires cash transactions. Automated systems can instantly capture vehicle registration numbers, track vehicular movements across interstate corridors, and seamlessly trace or apprehend suspects,” he mentioned.

Although acknowledging that tollgates had been related to abuses prior to now, Musa maintained that automated techniques may deal with such issues and strengthen their usefulness in crime prevention.

The defence minister additionally advocated a simpler nationwide identification framework, proposing the combination of distinctive identification numbers with facial recognition and biometric information to enhance identification verification.

He mentioned a centralised digital database would assist safety businesses establish people extra precisely, deal with gaps in current information and enhance the gathering of intelligence.

On the army’s involvement in home safety, Musa defined that the Armed Forces have been primarily liable for defending the nation’s territorial integrity however may help the police when safety threats turned too tough for them to handle.

He, nevertheless, raised issues concerning the extended deployment of troopers for inner safety operations, noting that prolonged assignments had stored many personnel away from their households for years.

“Our troops have spent years deployed across regions such as the North-west, away from their families and loved ones,” he mentioned.

Musa mentioned efforts have been being made to enhance police recruitment, coaching and operational capabilities, with the goal of enabling the power to take higher duty for inner safety.

He defined that strengthening the police would enable the army to regularly withdraw from home deployments and return to its major duty of defending the nation.

The minister additionally recognized nationwide disunity as a significant impediment to addressing insecurity, arguing that Nigeria’s challenges went past the provision of army gear and monetary sources.