The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed, has described Abuja as an area prone to terror attacks by its design.
This is just as he said the Abuja Master Plan did not anticipate terror attacks as such facilities provided in the city, such as roads, were not designed with that in mind, saying, “The master plan was not conceptualise to terrorism when it was being built so our facilities are prone to attacks.”
The minister who stated this yesterday, in Abuja, while receiving members of Course 5 of the Institute of Security Affairs who were on a study visit of the FCT administration further lamented that to secure life and property in the FCT, certain measures had been taken, such as blocking some routes, which was in itself another problem.
“By doing this we are creating traffic gridlocks so it is one problem to the other,” he said.
Mohammed, however, said the administration was not resting on its oars to ensure that Abuja remained safe, despite the daunting challenges.
Mohammed, however, said the administration was not resting on its oars to ensure that Abuja remained safe, despite the daunting challenges.
He said one of the measures currently being explored by the administration was to lay fibre optic cables within the CCTV network, to connect every residence in the territory to a telephone network through which they can reach security agencies, rather than employing security guards to guard their premises, a move which may be counter-productive, considering that the security guards mat themselves be security risks.
The minister commended the security agencies for their efforts in safeguarding life and property in the city and urged them to continue to do more.
Earlier, the Director of the institute, Dr. O.A Odugbemi, said the institute had commenced its fifth course last week, tagged, ‘National Security and the Transformation Agenda’.
He explained that the participants visit several places as part of the course; and that they had chosen the FCT to get first hand information on how its developmental programmes were impacting on national security.
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