Senator Ali Ndume has said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari cannot deny knowledge of the whereabouts of terrorists and bandits with the technology available in the country.
The lawmaker alleged that the government has shown complacency in its handling of the security challenges facing Nigeria.
The Borno South lawmaker disclosed this during an interview on Channels Television’s current affairs programme, Politics Today, on Wednesday.
Ndume also made reference to a statement made by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi on Tuesday that Monday’s terrorist attack on a Kaduna-bound train could have been avoided.
Amaechi had said his proposal for its ministry to buy N3 billion worth of equipment to avert such an attack was denied by the Federal Executive Council.
Ndume said, “If you look at it deeply, there is a lot of complacency in it. You have the MTN services. These people are using phones so you can track them. With today’s technology, people are taken away and you say you don’t know where they are. No, I mean let’s be serious.
“Coming back to what the minister (Amaechi) said, I got angry too. I mean how can you put all these people — every day, an average of 1,000 are moving around — and then the ministry will ask for money to buy gadgets and drones. These are mostly off-the-shelf items.
“You can order them or import them, install them immediately in two to three days. But you know what will happen in Nigeria next? They will go on TV and say we have purchased so and so and the bandits will watch it and they know where it is going to be installed.
“This system is terrible. People will frustrate this kind of process and you can see the minister was angry. That means there was a lot of frustration in the process of procurement.”
Ndume also alleged that “there is a bunch and a lot of kleptocracy in this system and the government needs to do something about it”.
