The governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, says his administration is scaling up use of technology and data to improve security as well as monitoring of traffic in the state.
Speaking at the 18th Lagos State Annual Townhall Meeting on Security in Lagos on Thursday, Governor Sanwo-Olu said drone technology will be deployed to monitor waterways and densely populated areas.
“The EGIS component of our mapping and digitalization has almost been completed,” Sanwo-Olu said.
“Lagos is now properly mapped, and drone technology will be deployed at appropriate levels to ensure that both our waterways and densely populated areas will enhance area monitoring, crowd management and traffic assessment effectively at various times so that we can sit back in our offices and people can see what is happening at locations and can respond accordingly.”
He said that Lagos State has started to ensure that technology-driven security architecture continues to have a direct component to how security operatives respond.
According to him, almost 500 high-definition cameras have been installed in different parts of the state where almost 350 streets could be monitored at the command-and-control centre with 24-hour surveillance.
Sanwo-Olu said the plan is to wrap up the deployment to about 200 cameras which is ongoing in another phase.
He noted that the state is also installing digital identification system which is used to apprehend traffic offenders. Some of these things would be launched in January once they are completed, Governor Sanwo-Olu stated.
The governor said that the Lagos State government is not doing these things alone but with extensive collaboration with private sector initiatives.
The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, was present at the event, as the governor disclosed that the state and the police have entered a partnership to build several barracks for the police.
Sanwo-Olu stated that he earlier in the day, alongside the IGP, performed a groundbreaking of 2,200 police housing units at Ijeh Police Barracks, Obalende, Ikoyi Lagos which is the first level of intervention.