The House of Representatives on Wednesday, directed its committees on Information and Communication Technology, ICT, Public Safety and National Security, to find out why the Close Circuit Television Cameras, CCTV, installed in Lagos and Abuja have failed to detect criminal activities and to submit findings within two weeks.

The directive followed a motion by Saviour Udoh (Akwa-Ibom/PDP), in view of brazen acts of terrorism perpetrated within Abuja metropili

The motion enjoyed the unanimous support of the House and was adopted without debate.

Udoh told lawmakers that the contract for the installation of the CCTVs was awarded by the federal government during the late Umaru Yar’Adua administration at the cost of $470 million, but that despite completion of the project and subsequent handing over to government, no criminal activity had been detected by the cameras.

The federal government had also awarded a contract for the installation of 2,000 digital solar powered cameras – 1,000 for Lagos and 1,000 for Abuja, 37 switch rooms, MW backbone, 37 Coalition Emergency Response System, 38 Video Conference Subsystems, 37 E-Police System, six emergency communication vehicles and 1.5 subscriber lines.

According to the contract agreement, video images captured by the cameras could be stored for more than one month and could also be transferred to the system’s database for archiving.

The lawmakers agreed that there was a need for the government to ensure functionality of the security gadgets installed in the two states.