…Briefs NCAA, FCDA, others on development
By Dele Ogbodo
The Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (OSGOF) has briefed Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and the relevant stakeholders of its preparation to commence the digital drone mapping of Abuja.
The Office acknowledged that it has obtained the necessary clearance from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the Military, and the Safety Operational Risk Assessment (SORA) for the drone mapping.
In his opening remarks at the briefing, the Surveyor General of the Federation (SGOF) Abduganiyu Adebomehin, said “I want to thank you to our partners, FCDA and to our consultant on this project having find time to come and take us through, take us through in the sense that it’s a new technology.
“We have the prototype of this drone and we have permit to fly it, but this is massive away from what we used to do. That is one and I am happy that NCAA is coming to be part of it, irrespective of the fact that we are partners.”
Reiterating part of the benefits of the drone digital mapping, the SGOF said “The beauty of it is, once you have mapping in 3D, there’s a lot you can do with it. In fact, there was one show that they used it for agriculture. It went to wet almost six acres of land. No human being would do that, unless a machine.
So all you need to do is to lace this with another device, and the system goes wet and come back. The same thing, you want to till the land, you need a tractor, and you program it. It does that.”
The Head of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing department of OSGOF whose office is the duty to supervise the project Surv. Hafiz Azeez, in his remarks said during drone digital mapping exercise members of the public privacy and safety would not in any way be compromised.
Responding to the SORA briefing, the General Manager , General Aviation (U.A.S Unit) NCAA, Capt. Maikano Wilson in his speech said “I think I spoke with one of you, you said you are concluding your briefing, internal briefing today.
So we are glad to be part of it. We did correspond with you, I can imagine some of the things we need to see in place, like the conditions given by the ONSA for you to meet, like contacting NAMA, making sure that NAMA is aware of your operationsing
According to him, NAMA is Nigerian Airspace Management Agency for all the Air Traffic Control (ATC) clearances and ATC terms, etc. So that your operation is full and all concerned are aware of it, so that we can operate as safe as possible. We are glad something like this is happening. Thank you.”
The leader of the FCDA delegation team, Divisional Head Mapping, Surv Nandah Danjuma, was told during the questions and answers time that FCDA has the right to continue with the rest phase of the digital mapping in Federal Capital Territory by seeking for the relevant permission from the right authorities.
The Place US company team leader and Partner, Field Operation, Frank Pichel who read out the SORA said: “We would be mindful of the environment during the exercise and take cognizance of peoples’ safety and all the regulations law will be followed strictly during the exercise.”
OSGOF, after the briefing immediately mobilized its staff to site to start the necessary assessment of the areas prior to the commencement of the exercise next week.
