A retired senior police officer has revealed that the real-time tracking technology used by the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) to combat crime was misused by politicians to monitor their “enemies and mistresses” instead of tracking kidnappers.
The officer shared this information in response to a question from Vanguard about what went wrong with the system designed to track kidnappers and intercept their calls for quick arrests and rescues.
The Police introduced intelligence-led policing in 2015, installing a tracking device under then-Inspector-General of Police Solomon Arase. The IRT used this technology to monitor kidnappers’ movements, analyze call patterns, and track potential hideouts. It provided crucial evidence for building cases against criminals, including the successful capture of kidnappers who abducted former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, in September 2015.
A senior police officer involved in the Falae case recounted, “As soon as the kidnappers removed the SIM card used for negotiations, we tracked them and intercepted them near the bridge to Minna. We recovered the ransom money, arrested the five kidnappers, and retrieved the motorcycle used in the crime. The kidnappers were sentenced to life imprisonment.”
However, the retired officer criticized the handling of the tracking system. He explained, “The priorities of successive IGPs changed. Solomon Arase’s platform was intended to track calls and aid the IRT in operations. Yet, later IGPs, who were less tech-savvy, merged the technical platform with IRT. This led to the platform being used for political spying rather than crime prevention.”
According to the officer, the platform was accessed by people in the National Assembly and the Villa, who used it for personal purposes. This misuse, combined with a lack of strategic oversight and failure to upgrade the system, led to its collapse.
The retired officer added, “The system required regular updates and subscriptions. But successive IGPs failed to maintain it. After the subscription fees were neglected for about three years, the company responsible for maintenance withdrew its services, making it hard to track kidnappers and other criminals.”
Despite the reactivation of the tracking device by the current IGP, Kayode Egbetokun, kidnappers continue to evade capture, and tracking efforts by other agencies like the DSS and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) are still facing challenges.
