National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has called on the Federal Government to deploy software such as the union’s e-tracking platform to tackle insecurity.
NURTW Deputy General Secretary, Anthony Asogwa, who made call in Abuja, said the platform would enable the union detect threats to vehicle of members.
He said the union has concluded arrangements and would launch the platform before the end of the year or within the first quarter of 2022.
“Nigeria has the means to be able to engage any of the sophisticated software, which it can use in tracking the positions of criminals because most of the times they are camped in the forest.
“Arrangements have been concluded by the union to introduce what we call e-tracking. It is a platform we created and all our members will be logged into that platform,
“If there is any threat or issue, we will be able to detect it. If your friends or relations are travelling and are on the platform, you can monitor the vehicle’s movement at any point in time using the software.
“This is why I said currently, there are enough means to track criminality. With the platform, any of our vehicles that have issues on the road, we will be able to monitor it and then make calls to the nearest police station. We are collaborating with the police on this,” he said.
NURTW also appealed to the Federal Government to increase its effort toward tackling insecurity to enable free movement of goods across the country.
“About 90 percent of transportation of goods and services in Nigeria are done by road. And because of insecurity on the roads, these goods and services cannot move freely to where they are needed and this impedes the economic growth of the country.
“This situation doesn’t seem to have improved as recently, even the train, which we considered the safest was attacked but God was merciful.
“So, we want to plead with the Federal Government to do more. I believe if the government increase its effort, the situation will be under control,” Asogwa said.
The secretary general also decried the poor state of the roads, saying it enabled crime to thrive.
“Our roads are in a very bad condition. Some of these criminals stand at the bad portion of the roads, knowing you will definitely slow down and when you do, they will attack,” he said.