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The Nigerian government has launched a mobile app for sending crime alerts to security agencies in real-time.
Launched in Abuja by Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, the Nigerian Internal Security and Public Safety Alert System (NISPSAS) is owned by the Federal Ministry of Interior on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
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The NISPSAS app is managed with the collaboration of agencies that include The Nigerian Police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, The Federal Fire Service, The Nigerian Immigration Service, and the Nigerian Correctional Services and others.
“One noticeable lacuna is information and timely alert of the security agencies to incidents of crimes, breach of security, and natural disasters before they happen or while they are going on. In most cases, they would have been prevented or mitigated if the alert had come in time,” said Aregbesola.
Adding: “as part of the response to this challenge, the Ministry of Interior has therefore developed an application, a technological innovation that works with the smart mobile phone or any other device with Android or IOS capability, to send alerts to all security agencies in real-time.
According to the minister, many attacks would have been foiled if the security agencies had been notified in real-time.
App gets encouraging reviews from users
Reviews of the app by users have been encouraging but there are blights needing to be fixed to make the app more efficient. Some users observed that the app’s graphical user interface (GUI) design could be made more attractive. Some others have applauded the app as good and highly responsive but want the ‘panic alert and location’ features to be rejigged so that users don’t unknowingly trigger a false alarm. Some users claim the app keeps sending panic alerts even when not authorised.
He said the application is free to use for Nigerians and can be downloaded on the Android or iOS Playstore while expressing confidence that the mobile app will help to bridge the gap of communication between Nigerians and security agencies.
His words: “The initiative is in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s policy of making the security of lives and property of Nigerians a priority.
“It is also part of the objective of leveraging on Information and Communication Technology in doing government business and operations.
“The app utilises a combination of audio-visual and geospatial location identification of the caller and scenes of incidents on the ministry inter-agency situation room (MISR).
“It also works on the command and control centres, dashboards of the four services, that is, immigration service, correctional service, federal fire service, civil defence as well as police headquarters for joint inter-agency operations.”
