Lagos – Alhaji Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, the Managing Director of Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat), says NigComSat-1R will provide the solutions to the country’s security challenges.

Ahmed-Rufai said this in Lagos at the Stakeholders’ Conference and Exhibition on NigComSat-1R with the theme: “Pre-Launch Marketing and Sensitisation on NigComSat-1R”.

“NigComSat system will help to track the criminal activities and control national security.

“If used appropriately, NigComSat-1R will be the answer to Nigeria’s national security challenges,’’ he said.

According to him, security challenges in the country had resulted in the loss of billions of dollars.

He said that Nigeria had been identified as the third nation in the world for maritime insecurity, losing about 25 billion dollars annually.

Ahmed-Rufai said that the country losing 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day through pipelines vandalism.

“Environmental degradation is affecting millions of people living in the Niger Delta due to pipelines vandalism and the loss of billions of dollars to clean up the affected areas,’’ he said.

Mr Inuwa Danladi, the Technical Manager in NigComSat Ltd., said that the issue of national security was very important to the government at all levels.

Danladi said that all efforts being made by the nation’s security agencies had yet to yield the desired results due to the sophisticated nature of the crimes.

According to him, there are insufficient communications and operational facilities put in place to check crimes.

“There is lack of comprehensive response centres in terms of national emergencies and the nation’s security agencies are not well-equipped with modern communications,’’ Danladi said.(NAN)