After many years of installation, Sagem Morpho-Access security gateways are finally becoming operational in the Presidential Villa.
The glass auto-gateways project, first installed at different locations in the Villa during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, was not completed. The gateways were programmed to open at the approach of anyone, but that is changing now as only duly authorised staff and visitors will be allowed to gain access to the President’s and Vice President’s offices’ wings and other key offices and facilities in the State House.
With final touches and coding going on, the identification system is expected to be fully operational this week.
The global identification system has fingerprint access control, time and attendance terminal.
The glass gateway is expected to open only when a duly authorised staff’s fingerprint is scanned and identified by the machine. The gateway will not open if the machine could not identify the person’s biometrics on its database.
Their rapidity and networking capabilities have been deployed to address security applications from one-door control to protection of buildings, vast infrastructures and government agencies across the globe.
The system, which has been installed with accurate fingerprint sensor, is expected to be very fast and hitch-free.
It is expected to be as fast as between 0.7 and 0.9 seconds in the identification mode, carrying out detection, coding and matching at the same time.
When a duly accredited staff places his or her index finger on the fingerprint panel, the machine’s monitor instantly displays ‘Remove finger analyzing…’, it then shows ‘Welcome’ and the ‘staff’s name’ followed by ‘Identified’ before the glass gateway is momentarily flung open for the staff to pass through.
When the index finger is not properly placed on the panel, the monitor displays ‘Move up’ asking the staff to properly place the index finger.
With its multifactor authentication capacity, it can also encode badges and identity tags apart from capturing fingerprints.
This means that beside the fingerprints scanning, access can also be granted by simply swiping an authorised staff’s identity tag closed to the machine.
The new system have optronic sensor installed that detects false fingerprints and immediately bar unauthorized staff or visitors from gaining access to the Villa.
With the capacity to have up to 50,000 users, at any given time, its integration into existing systems is supposed to be easy with in-built Power-Over-Ethernet (POE) and optional wireless LAN communication.
As the machines are already installed at the pilot gate and many points before the President’s and Vice President’s office doors, a new order is certainly emerging at the seat of power.
While the machines will now carry out independent and proper screening of staff and visitors to the Villa, the security personnel on duty will now have less to do and just concentrate more on monitoring usage of the machines by staff and visitors and act appropriately whenever any unauthorized person tries to beat the system.
Apart from identifying anyone carrying a fake identity card, the machines will also restrict movement of some staff not authorized to go beyond a certain point.
Movements of visitors without proper clearance from the authority will also be checked.
There is however a way out for security personnel on duty to allow visitors with proper authorization to have access whenever the machine fails to grant such persons access.
The security personnel at the point of entry can also press a button for the glass gateway to open for state governors and high profile visitors that don’t normally get visitor’s tag at the pilot gate.
But the machine is going to pose a new challenge to governors’ aides that normally accompany their bosses inside the Villa without visitors’ tags.
The new identification system will also bring to an end the era where the authority had to deploy security personnel or top management staff to wait at the gate in order to physically seize, for any reason, identity cards of staff it does not want to gain access to the seat of power.
Just a push of a button, under the new system, deleting the staff’s biometrics from the database in the control room, will bar any staff or visitor from gaining entrance to the Villa. Above all, the authorities will always be full of prayers for thunder storm and other troublemakers not to disrupt the smooth operation of the machines.
Sill on the Niger Delta
A new type of challenge is fast rearing its head up against achieving peace and order in the Niger Delta. Various militant groups in the region have continued to bomb and destroy oil pipelines and infrastructures in the past months.
The greatest challenge now is how to articulate the grievances of the region and for their leaders, elders and the militants to speak with one voice.
This is very essential, especially as President Muhammadu Buhari has decided to tackle the crisis in the area.
To this end, Buhari at the beginning of this month received Niger Delta Stakeholders, under the aegis of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PNDF) led by Amanyanabo of Twon Brass Bayelsa State, King Alfred Diete Spiff and elder statesman, Edwin Clarke.
During that meeting, Buhari had received a 16-point demand from the region. But some militants immediately dissociate themselves from the meeting and continued with bombing of oil and power installations.
Another group, Niger Delta People’s Congress (NDPC) last Tuesday presented fresh demands to the Presidency.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had received the new group as President Buhari was away in Morocco attending the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as COP-22.
The new group said they were representing the whole of the Niger Delta region and the interest of all the militants.
Their visit to the Villa, they said, was to prioritize the concerns of the people of the region and place them in clearer perspectives than what the first group submitted to the President.
Another group, Niger Delta Youth Association (NDYA) last Wednesday also faulted the 16-point demand earlier presented to President Buhari by the first delegation.
Aware of the present predicament, President Buhari in a meeting with U.S Secretary of State, John Kerry, in Morocco last Wednesday admitted that it was difficult bringing the main protagonists of the militancy under one umbrella.
There is no guarantee that as the President settles down to consider the demands already submitted to him, that another different group(s) will not rush to the Villa with fresh demands.
Except the region speaks with one voice, there is no doubt that finding a lasting solution to the problems in the area will be difficult to attain.
