By Ubong Sampson
National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has suggested to the federal government the deployment of software such as its e-tracking platform as a means to tackling insecurity in the country.
According to the Deputy General Secretary of the union, Anthony Asogwa, will enable the union detect threats to vehicle of members, hinting that the union has concluded arrangements to launch the platform before the end of the year or within the first quarter of 2022.
Asogwa noted that Nigeria has the means to be able to engage any of the sophisticated software, which he said, can be used in tracking the locations of criminals.
“Arrangements have already 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 any issue, we will be able to detect it.
“If your friends or relations are traveling 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, he said
He also hinted that the union is collaborating with the police on the development, while also appealing to the federal government to increase efforts towards tackling insecurity on the roads to enable free movement of goods across the country.
“inasmuch as we know that the federal government is doing its best on the issue of security, it has to do more because the situation appears not to be getting better
“About 90 per cent 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 they do more, the situation will be under control, Asogwa added.
