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KAROTA convicts 5,000 in one month, considers community service for traffic offenders
By Nazifi Dawud
The Kano Road Traffic Agency (KAROTA) said it has convicted a total of 5,000 traffic offenders within just one month through its mobile court.
Head of the traffic outfit, Baffa Babba Dan-Agundi, said this in his office on Wednesday while receiving members of the Kano state Correspondent Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Mr Dan Agundi also revealed plans by the agency to introduce community service for traffic offenders that cannot afford to pay its fines.
“You know, one of the challenges we face is that when you arrest some of these traffic offenders, they will tell you that they don’t have money. KAROTA is not a revenue generation agency although, what we are really after is for road users to maintain traffic laws.
“So, we want to introduce this community services as a way of punishment so that when you say you don’t have money to pay your fine, you will be assigned to do a community service commiserate with the gravity of traffic offence you committed,” he said.
He added that KAROTA is sensitizing members of the public on how to avoid traffic offenses, which he said often lead to unnecessary traffic hold-ups and accidents.
Mr Dan Agundi identified some of the offences including wrong parking, reckless driving, receiving or making calls while driving, speeding, among other related traffic offences.
“As a result of the measures we put in place since I came in as the managing director of KAROTA, the rate of accidents within Kano metropolis has dropped by over 70 per cent.
”This is not a fabricated data. The facts are there even in our hospitals. When I visited some of the hospitals within the state, they confirmed this to me.
”Because this feat is due to the re-orientation of our staff who are now fully motivated to work for the interest of the people and our dear Kano state,” he said.
He continued: “To tell you that even the road users are now conscious of the traffic laws. By June this year, for instance, we were getting about N5.5 million as fines from traffic offenders, but in July, we were able to receive only N2 million as fine from traffic offenders.”
Mr Dan Agundi appealed to road users to be conscious of traffic rules and obey them, saying it is all about the safety of human life.
”If all of us do what is right while on the road, KAROTA will have less work to do and society will be better for it,” he said.
Nasiru Yusuf
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has on Monday flagged off the training on e-governance and digital transformation for the members of the Kano State Executive Council.
Kano Focus reports that the training which is the first of it’s kind, was aimed at equipping the leadership of the state with the requisite skills for effective governance in line with global best practices.
Speaking at the event, the Minister noted that “e-governance is key to the success of any economy at all levels as it enhances transparency, cost effectiveness and accountability while ensuring the effective delivery of government digital services to the people. Kano is strategic in terms of population and commerce and the timing is apt.
“The programme aims at tutoring the top state government officials on the application of modern technology to improve performances at all levels and also deliver services and programs more efficiently, transparently, and cost-effectively.”
Pantami disclosed that the training was at the behest of the state governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje who had initiated talks on possible collaborations and partnerships with the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy during a courtesy visit earlier this year.
While commending the state governor for the plan to deploy fibre optics across the state within the next two years, the minister called on other state governors to emulate Ganduje and embrace the digital transformation training.
“We are open to partnering with any state that is willing to take advantage of this laudable initiative.”
““E-governance is a necessity for the success of every government”, Pantami said, adding that, “according to the World Bank diagnostic report of 2019, it was projected that by 2025, e-commerce activities in Nigeria will reach up to USD 75 Billion within a year”.
“COVID 19 has exposed the need for digitization, which is now a necessity”, Pantami stated.
The Minister urged the council members to take full advantage of the training, stressing that e-governance is key to the success of any economy at all levels.
Pantami also called on the Kano state government to adopt other initiatives and strategies of the Federal Government such as the Nigeria Interoperability Framework, and the Nigeria e-government Enterprise Framework and make them the mirror for the implementation of e-governance in the state.
He further advised the state government to study other National policies of the Federal Government and key into them so that the IT investment plan of the state will be in alignment with that of the federal government.
Pantami announced the donation of over 100 digital devices to the state by the Federal Government and called on the beneficiaries to make good use of them.
On his part, governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje appreciated Pantami for matching words with action following his visit to the Communications and Digital Economy Complex in Abuja where he initiated talks on the possible collaborations and partnerships with the ministrynistry to foster ICT development in Kano state.
The Governor thanked the Ministry for the provision of digital intervention projects in the state such as a digital training centre which is ongoing and also the consideration to use Kano as the pilot state for the Government Digital Transformation training.
Ganduje expressed gratitude for the training of over 1000 youths from the state on digital skills and also the support rendered to the state to come up with a State ICT policy which he described as the blueprint guiding the state over the years.
He further solicited support from the ministry to update the policy to reflect current realities.
Nasiru Yusuf
Kano state governor Abdullahi Ganduje said his administration has trained 5,504 constabulary to support community policing.
KANO FOCUS reports that Ganduje revealed this on Sunday while inaugurating Rano Emirate community policing committees in Doguwa local government area.
The governor explained how community policing strategy goes deeply into the fabric of Kano society, as a political entity.
While enumerating reasons behind the recorded achievements in the security of the state, governor said, “Our administration found it necessary to support community participation in the security of our state.”
“We have gone further by recruiting Police constabulary, who are assisting the security agencies. And also we are assisting the various community policing committees.
“We trained in Kaduna 704 graduates of Police Constabulary. Also for each of the rural local governments, the 36 local governments, we are training 100 Police constabulary. Making a total of 3,600 Police constabulary.”
“For the 8 metropolitan, local governments we are training 150 in each of the 8 local governments. Giving rise to 1,200 Police Constabulary. Having a total of 4,800 Police Constabulary in addition to 704 that have already been trained. Which all stands at 5,504 Police Constabulary now at hand.”
“Community participation, apart from community policing is necessary for us to achieve a desirable situation from all ramifications. As such, we are also inviting corporate social responsibility in the management of security situation in Kano state.”
Part of the factors that played an important role in the security situation in the state, he acknowledged and appreciated that, “Our security agencies have succeeded in building full synergy among themselves. And we have extended coordination in order to get security information and action in Kano state.
“We have to thank the Police, the Department for State Security (DSS), the Air Force, the Army, the Civil Defence (NSCDC), Immigration, Customs and Excise, Correctional Homes, traditional institutions, National Agency for the for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP), the Vigilante Groups, representatives of various communities, we have to thank them all. They are all contributing to the security situation in Kano state.”
Mr Ganduje he stressed that, “There is no doubt security is an issue of topical nature in Nigeria. Is an issue that bothers almost everybody, all governments in Nigeria. And is an issue that we must come altogether in order to solve it.
“We can see the effort of our security agencies that are working round the clock in order to keep Nigeria safe. In Kano state we are also conscious of the security of our state. Therefore we developed various strategies in order to secure Kano state.”
“First of all we examined the issue of metropolitan, Kano being a metropolitan city and a mega city, we have taken necessary steps in order to ensure the security of our own mega city.”
“We built what we call Security Dormitories on the major entrance of metropolitan Kano. That each of the dormitories houses 600 policemen. And also we have developed CCTV programme.
“Which is working very well. While the control room is with our security agencies. We have other technology employed in order to check security issues.”
In his remarks, the Emir of Rano, Kabiru Inuwa Muhammad, commended the effort being put by governor Ganduje in securing all parts of the state, with the Divine help from Almighty Allah.
He said, “Today is a historic day that we cannot forget. All our people are happy with this special event taking place in our Emirate, Rano Emirate. We are always ready to cooperate with your policies and programmes Your Excellency Sir. Especially this issue of community policing.”
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