The Anambra State Government has trained 20 police officers and 25 civilians to take charge of the newly installed sophisticated Close Circuit Television (CCTV) Smart City security equipment across the state.

The 25 civilians who were trained along security personnel ahead of the arrival of the equipment are expected to work with the police in sharing and discriminating information as gathered while on duty.

Governor Willie Obiano had last Friday donated 101 vehicles, 79 hi-tech motorcycles fully equipped with the latest security gadgets and also launched the new security device to support the second phase of the Operation Kpochapu.

Addressing journalists on the expectations and working of the security gadgets in Awka, the Special Adviser to Governor Obiano on Creative Security, AVM, Ben Chuobi (rtd), said that the training of the 45 persons to man the gadgets, the state government has set the ball rolling to ensure the state remains the safest in the country.

He said that unlike what is obtainable in other parts of the world, that the CCTV will be mounted on trailers instead of along to the road to prevent it from being tampered with or vandalised.

According to him, the civilians would be in charge of the control rooms, which would have direct link with the field operators consisting of security operatives.

Chuobi explained that the training would soon be extended to other security operatives to guarantee adequate availability of manpower.

He added: “The gadgets have the capacity to capture images and footings of criminals in any part of the state simultaneously

“To avoid vandalism, we decided to mount the gadgets on trailers so that we can move them about. We should expect teething challenges initially because we are not copying from anywhere and I am sure that other states will eventually come to learn from us.

“When I joined the government, my mandate was made clear and that was that security is of utmost importance to the state government. What we have done is to adopt a systematic structure code named Anambra Integrated Security Surveillance and I am happy that it had taken off smoothly.”

The Chief of Staff to the governor, Mr. Primus Odili, however noted that the State Security Council would meet subsequently to fine tune the new security system and also foster ways of extend the CCTV cameras to hotels in the state saying that it will help to curb crime in hotels.

He said that the Governor on assumption of office decided to prioritise security because he knows that no meaningful development could take place without adequate security of life and property.

Odili added: “Economy thrives where there is security. We intend to liaise with hoteliers in the state so they can also adopt the idea of putting CCTV cameras in their property. When criminals know the hotel they are in has CCTV cameras, it will create fear and it will ultimately scare them from committing crime.”

Update news