Plans by the Lagos State Government to fully commence operation of a 24-hour surveillance cameras aimed at monitoring daily situation across the metropolis through the security and command centres has reached advanced stage setting the stage for full operation soon.

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It will be recalled that Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State at the commemoration of his 400 days in office disclosed plans to install Close Circuit Television (CCTV) across the state as part of efforts to particularly reduce crime rate.

The multi-million naira initiative which is to be executed under the Safe City Project is being financed through the Security Trust Fund of the state government.

Fashola and some members of the state Executive Council yesterday conducted an inspection and demonstration of the facility at the Lekki temporary control unit.

In his remarks at the end of video presentation of the system, the governor who acknowledged the support and understanding on the part of Lagos residents in making the plan achievable, declared that the project would further enable the state government’s security apparatus improve their capacity to respond to emergencies.

His words: “This used to happen in movies, we are here to demonstrate what we are doing while we are waiting for the completion of the Central Security and Command Centre that would house all these facilities as well as house heads of departments that comprises of ambulances, the traffic, rapid response.

“We realize the difficult challenges and the terrain in which we operate, but we have determined not to be fazed by challenges but we will think out of the box.

“18 million people can not be protected and policed by 33,000 people, this is impossible. And no matter how high we try to increase the number of officers, it is evident we can not continue to do the same things and expect different results.”

“In an information technology driven world we have to be counted as one of those states and communities who will adopt best practices, cameras, sensors, tracking devices are the nerve centre of these facilities that would assist men and officers of the police force, fire service among others to do their duty much more effectively.

“This is only one step in the whole platform, Lagossians must recall that the platform started with the signing and naming of streets, providing directional signs for responders to get to crisis centre on time with the deployment of the emergency number, 767 which is toll free. With this initiative, we are determined to make a difference.”

Fashola however reiterated the call on hands to be on deck saying that concern of security in anywhere in any state is the concern of everybody in the state.

“The Security Trust Fund is an opportunity for everybody to contribute to security, it is not tax, but we ask you to learn a hand to take our city away from law breakers and criminals, if we get more money we will certainly do much more.”

This, he said would help government to further achieve the most important responsibility and deliver on most important obligation to keep the very watchful eye on 18 million Lagos residents.

According to Fashola, the measure was part of efforts to be able to secure and protect every resident as well as respond when emergencies do happen as they will happen.

He stressed that for effective operations all the heads of security agencies, Rapid Response Squad (RRS), LASAMBUS, LASTMA, who are to be stationed ultimately at the command centre would have a unit so that when the need to response arises they pass the information to concern agencies.

On fire incidents in the state, he said: ” If you do a comparative analysis between last two years, there is increasing demands not only in the number of fire disasters but in the number of accidents and disasters that happens in this state, not only we are responding but we are advocating on the need to be more careful. Each season come with it’s own challenge.

“More importantly, this will enable us improve our capacity to respond to emergencies. The 767 is still functional. I want to stress here that these cameras on their own can not do nothing unless people engage in using that number 767 which will set the process in motion.”

While  explaining the demonstration of the project, the General Manager Fastrack a foreign experts Consulting firm,  Mr. Adir Mizrahi said that the target for the state is to install 10,000 cameras that would feed the centre with data via wireless communication network.

He added that the system has tracking devices that could monitor and track even suspicious movement anywhere in the state.