The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has urged the National Assembly not to pass a bill seeking to authorize e-surveillance of telephone calls by the security agencies, as part of efforts to check the worsening insecurity in the country.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday, National Publicity Secretary of ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said passing such a bill will only amount to giving the security agencies the carte blanche to tap the phones of any citizen on the pretext that it is for security purposes.
It said such a law was also capable of breeding dictatorship, as it can be easily abused by the government of the day to target the opposition or even their own party officials who have fallen out of favour.
ACN said what the country needs to tackle the enormous security challenges in the country is to think out of the box, encourage cooperation among the security agencies and fund them adequately so as to develop their capacity and vision.
The party said, however, that the ultimate answer to the serious security challenges facing the nation is the establishment of state police, securing the nation’s borders and improving training as well as intelligence gathering.
“Since it is said that all security is local, having state police will definitely enhance security across the country. One cannot over-state the importance of deploying security agents to areas with which they are very conversant, either in terms of language or the geographical terrain in which they operate.