President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday approved the sum of N653,886,584 for the procurement and deployment of hybrid spectrum monitoring system to detect illegal frequencies in the South-East part of the country.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, disclosed this while speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Buhari In the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Pantami said investigations had revealed the use of illegal frequencies in the country had become very rampant, adding out of the 320 frequencies discovered, 106 were illegal.
“The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, sort the approval of council for deploying hybrid spectrum monitoring system, most importantly to focus on the south-eastern zone of the country.
“From January to August 2020, within the period of eight months, we discovered 320 frequencies being used all over the country and of this 320, 106 were illegal. This is very worrisome because the usage of this illegal spectrum or frequencies will compromise our security and safety in the country.”
The minister explained that it was because of the agenda of President Buhari on promoting security that the initiative of monitoring the usage of frequencies and uncover the legal and the illegal ones was berthed.
Pantami added that for the legal ones, it was to ensure they renew their licences annually, while for the illegal ones, necessary actions were being taken according to the gravity of the offence.
“We discovered that our monitoring did not cover south east part of the country. It covered five zones – north east, north -west, north central, south west and south south, however, south east has not been covered.
“It is because of this that we presented our memo, seeking for council’s approval of N653,886,584 to procure and deploy hybrid spectrum monitoring system that will cover the southern part of the country, most importantly the south east.
“So council approved for the deployment and this project will go along way in promoting safety and security and secondly, identify the usage of illegal spectrum and thirdly, enhance revenue for the federal government and fourthly, in the long run it will create many jobs for the citizens.
“The purpose of the memo is to enhance the operational capability and capacity of the Corps so that we can stop the carnage on our roads and also secure our roads better.
“The unique thing about this memo is that these vehicles are being sourced from one of our local assemble plants, Peugeot Nigeria Ltd in Kaduna”, he said.
KanyiDaily had earlier reported that President Buhari also approved the sum of $3.02bn for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri eastern narrow gauge railway.
