FG okays N2.bn ICT equipment for prisons

.N292m for aviation equipment, N268m for N-Power

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

The Federal Government has approved the sum of N2.8 billion for the procurement of equipment required to fast-track the digitalisation process of prisons across the federation.

The approval was made on Wednesday during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, chaired by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Council, also okayed the sum of N291, 731,485 for the purchase of Memory Access Retrieval System to enhance safety at the nation’s airports.

This came as the Council also approved N267, 906,107 for the implementation of new N-Power Built programme.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting on Wednesday, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who spoke on government efforts to decongest the prisons, said: “At a point it was said 70 percent of prison inmates across the prison formations in the country were awaiting trails. Arising from these concerns, the Federal Government has been working to come up with policies, legislation and associated programmes that are targeted at decongesting the prisons. One of the policies put in place was the legislation of the criminal justice act, which has partially succeeded in addressing decongestion to an extent.

“Recall that Mr. President had put in place an ad hoc committee under the chairmanship of FCT Chief Judge, Justice Ishaq Bello, to move around the prisons in the country, look at the conditions and come up with suggestion.

“So are also aware that by the constitution, Mr. President is vested with the prerogative of mercy targeted at setting free inmates that satisfies certain conditions.

“Arising from this, the office of the attorney general presented a memo today, which is web-based automated inter-connectivity system, which is a digitalized way of decongesting the prisons.

“The idea is to digitally connect all the prison formations to the office of the attorney general of the federation, the police, prison service and indeed selected courts. The essence is to have an idea on the daily basis what obtains at our prisons across the nation. So, at a glance at a click of the button, one can access what obtains at the prisons across the country. For instance, who is going to court today, who is being released today, those have been in prison longer than their years of sentence, who is in prison that is not meant to be there. This will aid stakeholders in decision making on a daily basis through digital process of inter-networking. This is against an ad hoc committee moving across the country to have physical presence in prisons.”

Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika, explained that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the purchase of the aviation equipment in order to ensure safety and security in the sector.

He said: “It will enhance our laboratory in accident investigation. It is a requirement of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in their standard practices and applicable by local laws.”

Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udoma, in his briefing, said: “FEC approved two contracts under the national social investment programme. Both of them are under N-Power Built programme. The N-Power Built programme is a non-graduate programme that seeks to deliver accelerated training and certification skills to 75,000 Nigerians between ages of 18-35 years old. It aims to build a high crop of highly competent and skilled workforce of technicians, artisans and service professionals, who will be trained and tooled and transitioned annually to take up jobs as electrical installation technicians, plumbing and pipe fitting installers, mason, carpentry and gentry experts, welders, fabricators, professional painters, built technicians and so on.

“The focus has so far been zone by zone. Today, the contract for the south east zone of Nigeria was awarded to Hitech Investment Ltd at the sum of N122,800,000 million. It covers all the states in the South East.

“The one for the north west zone was awarded to Noble Ventures Limited in the sum of N145, 106,107 and it covers all the state in the North West.”

The minister also debunked the clamour that the nation’s current debt profile was unsustainable insisting on the contrary.

Udoma said: “With regards to our debts, our debts are sustainable. We do have a revenue challenge and we are focusing on that. Once the revenues come up, it will be obvious that we don’t have a debt problem at all. We are working on a number of initiatives to increase our revenues. We are looking at initiatives to widening the tax pays. We are looking at initiatives to increase efficiency in collections. We are looking at a single window, which will help to increase efficiency, custom collections. We are looking at many different ways to improve revenues.

“The debts are sustainable, every nation borrows. We are working on increasing our revenues.

“With regard to the budget, we are happy to see the focus of the National Assembly on the budget and we look forward to whenever it’s passed and the executive receiving it.”

FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello, also disclosed that the Council approved two memos for the FCT.

“The first was the award of contract for the supply of water and field for the Abuja Water Board at the sum of N368 million including five percent VAT.

The second memo was the contract for the supply of 500 fire men suits under the FCT Fire Services for the management agency of the FCT at the cost of N226 million including five percent VAT,” Bello stated.