By Tony Adibe
Enugu State in Nigeria’s South-East Zone is gradually reaping the benefits of using drone technology to fight criminals since the establishment of the Command-and-Control Centre (CCC) by the Governor Peter Mbah-led administration.
The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Peter Mbah on Security, Vincent Chukwu, said this on Monday while taking journalists around the security facility. “These cameras have brought the crime rate down to about 80 per cent,” he said.
NewsBits recalls that the CCC is an advanced, AI-powered security and digital surveillance hub built by the Governor Peter Mbah-led administration. President Bola Tinubu commissioned it on 4th January 2025.
Chukwu said that the CCC infrastructure has made the arrest of criminal elements in the state much easier, and advised residents to always dial the 112 emergency number whenever they witness a crime incident anywhere within Enugu State.
“Enugu State domesticated 112. If you are dialling 112 from Enugu State…when you see any crime incident happen; just use your phone and dial 112, it will ring here and send alert to us. You then quickly tell us what is happening and where the incident is taking place,” he said.
He took the journalists to the various units of the CCC, which he said, its range of coverage reaches the whole of Enugu State and even to the boundaries with her neighbours such as Anambra, Kogi, Benue and Ebonyi States. When the CCTV inbuilt cameras in the Centre was zoomed, one could see places as far as Uzo-Uwani in Enugu North Senatorial Zone and the forested areas in the boundaries between Enugu state and her neighbours.
He said if any criminal “hides anywhere in the forest that you are seeing on the screen, we shall pick the criminal. With the drone technology and the Command and Control Centre in full operation as well as our men on ground, we shall pick you. There’s no hiding place for criminals in Enugu State”.
To illustrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the facility, the SSA on Security replayed a crime scene involving a car theft by a 3-man syndicate that apparently specialized in that area of criminality.
However, the 3-member car theft syndicate, unaware that a camera was recording their nefarious act on the Rangers Avenue within the Enugu metropolis, first drove to the back of their targeted car. Then the driver alighted from the car and walked straight to the security man in order to distract him, and the passenger in front shifted to the driver’s seat while the third person used possibly a master key to open and drove off the targeted car on reverse gear without the security man knowing.
Later, the man who took over the driver’s seat, drove their car to pick the man who distracted the security man. When the owner of the stolen car came and discovered his car missing , he reported to the police, and the camera was replayed and thereafter a manhunt for the car theft began, using the aide of the Artificial intelligence (AI) inbuilt camera which recorded how the crime.
Eventually, when the car was spotted at a particular location on another day, the driver denied knowledge of the crime, insisting that he had never stolen anything since he was born, according to Chukwu, who added that when the recorded criminal act was replayed to the man, he broke down and pleaded for mercy, saying “This is my first time.”
Chukwu said that upon conducting a thorough search on the man’s house, 22 vehicle documents of different types were recovered from the house of the same man who claimed that he had never stolen since he was born, and later “this is my first time.”
He said without this CCC infrastructure, it wouldn’t be easy to track this kind of stolen vehicles, emphasising that since the establishment of the facility, “we have been recovering many stolen vehicles.”
Chukwu disclosed that upon interrogation, the man revealed that he and his gang members usually sent all the vehicles stolen in Enugu to Lagos State, while the ones they stole in Lagos would be brought to Enugu for sale.
According to him, since 4th January 2025 President Bola Tinubu commissioned the Command-and-Control Centre, and with the aide of Drone technology, the crime rate in the state has reduced significantly.
“These cameras have brought crime rate down to about 80 per cent,” he said, adding that the long-range cameras can go very, very far in recognizing images, faces, and analysing data”
He pleaded with newsmen to help spread the news that Enugu State has become a no-go area for criminal elements because they must be caught whether they like it or not, and urged criminals to relocate from Enugu State.
