Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the National Security Minister Kan Dapaah have contradicted each other over the number of CCTV installations the government has installed across the country.
Whereas the Vice President says the government has installed 10,000 CCTV cameras as part of its digitization policy, the National Security Minister said 6,500 have been installed.
Appearing before Parliament on Tuesday, November 2, 2021, the National Security Minister said the current government is to install 10,000 more CCTV cameras and cellular technologies at vantage areas in all regional and district capitals across the country.
The move he explained is to enhance the operational efficiencies of the security and intelligence agencies.
He said the project would also provide for the installation of CCTV cameras in 432 out of the 900 regional, divisional, and district police stations across the country.
The project followed a contract agreement the government, through the Ministry of National Security, signed with Huawei Technologies and the China Machinery Engineering Corporation in 2018 to implement the second phase of the Integrated National Security Communications Enhancement Project (Alpha Project – Phase1).
“To date, the installation of about 6,500 cameras has been completed, with a little over 4,000 cameras powered and online, mainly in Accra, Kumasi and other regional capitals.
“This installation has aided us to detect many infractions and criminal activities, including helping us solve recent violent crimes such as armed robbery and kidnapping.”
“Even as brisk efforts are made to complete the existing phase, the relevant planning works are also being carried out to pursue additional phased deployments of cameras to cover the outstanding areas that cannot be served under this phase,” he assured Parliament.
However, the Vice President speaking at Ashesi University later in the evening on the same day said the government has installed 10,000 cameras.
”In many advanced countries, the pervasiveness of CCTV cameras imposes some restraint on potential criminals. You are likely to be caught if you break the law. This is why we have installed 10,000 CCTV cameras since 2017. The cameras have helped the police to solve a number of crimes such as the arrest of suspects in a recent bullion van robbery. At the beginning of 2017 we only had 800 CCTV cameras in operation,” he stated.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
