Nigeria Content Online

The Nigerian
Communications Satellite (NigComSat) Ltd. yesterday said it is working
with the Nigerian police to use satellite technology to combat crime in
the country.

Ahmed Rufai, the
managing director of NigComSat, made this known during the visit of a
group called the Jonathan Youth Vanguard to the company headquarters in
Abuja. The group had wanted to learn about the electronic voting system
and other devices designed by the company.

“In the next three
months, we will be able to provide a modernised public safety network
for effective policing because policing and crime control thrive on
their capacity to gather intelligence, track and process information,”
said Mr. Rufai. “If you don’t have this capacity, then the criminals
are a step ahead of you.”

The technology

The technology, a
code division multiple access (CDMA) channel, allows several people to
communicate over the same bandwidth at the same time, without
interfering with each other. It is currently being used in radio
communication technologies.

Mr. Rufai said
there are five channel towers in Abuja, three of which were built in
Utako, Nyanya, and Kubwa, and the rest two will be situated in Kuje,
and Gwagwalada. He said three more towers will be needed to fully cover
the city.

The Abuja version of the technology will be commissioned in the next few months,

and the police in the city will be enhanced to monitor and track incidences that are of interest to them, said Mr. Rufai.

“When we are able
to that, Nigerians will be able to sleep with their eyes closed,
because before a criminal can strike, the police should have [struck]
first,” he said. “We now want the police to stop a crime before it is
committed.” The president general of the youth group, George Turner,
commended NigComSat’s efforts and said the money invested by the
federal government in the company was not a waste.

Mr. Turner
expressed his hope that the development would address the problem of
unemployment to a very large extent in the country.