A new insight was Friday given into how the students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, abducted by suspected Boko Haram insurgents could be traced.
Giving this indication at a news briefing, the Surveyor-General of the
Federation, Prof. Peter Nwilo, said with high resolution imaging, the
location could be identified. He stated that this was more so, if the
hostages were massed in one place or if metallic objects were in the
location.
He said the radiations from such metals could be picked through remote
sensing from an unmanned aircraft, popularly called drone.
Nwilo however acknowledged that in a densely forested place such as the Sambisa forest, it would be more problematic achieving the same result.
"As I talk to you, there are areas of this country with images that
are seven centimetres' resolution... So, those things are possible. Of
course, where you have a forest, it is more difficult. You will then use
other methods of remote sensing.
"If, for example, you have metals somewhere, that's an essential part
of remote sensing. From the emissions from the metals, you can know the
kind of information that is there. If you have a few, it may not clearly
show but if you have them dumped in one place, you can easily get
that", he explained.
On another aspect of security, Nwilo noted that the absence of defined
grazing routes that has pitched the nomadic cattle rearers against crop
farmers in perennial bloody conflicts could have been avoided if routes
earlier mapped out had not been encroached upon by estate developers.
He lamented that although there were over 400 grazing grounds across
the country at a time, they had now been converted to housing estates.
He regretted that not much could be done against the culprits because
out of the more than 400 grazing grounds, only about 40 were gazetted.
Attributing this failing to a culture of lack of sustenance in the country, Nwilo said: "It was wise to have created grazing routes but when cities grow, they share the grazing routes, saying they are not important.
Attributing this failing to a culture of lack of sustenance in the country, Nwilo said: "It was wise to have created grazing routes but when cities grow, they share the grazing routes, saying they are not important.
"There were over 400 grazing grounds all over the country but only
forty-something were gazetted; and the grazing routes were converted to
housing estates."
He explained that the thinking of government was to ensure that wherever there was a grazing ground, it should go along with specific related industries like dairy products factories, abattoirs and meat processing plants.
He explained that the thinking of government was to ensure that wherever there was a grazing ground, it should go along with specific related industries like dairy products factories, abattoirs and meat processing plants.
He disclosed that China had completed a full mapping of Nigeria, and
said his agency would edit the map, which is of the scale of 1:100,000,
and adapt it for local use.
The Surveyor-General called on states and local governments in the country to be more actively involved in mapping.
He pointed out that the huge internally generated revenue recorded by
Lagos State was because it had made the best use of mapping which, he
explained, could be used in virtually every area of human endeavour.
Nwilo also lamented the unwillingness of the second and third tiers of
government to use mapping in developing their areas, especially as it
was on the concurrent list and not the exclusive list.
"Mapping should be done more by the states and local governments," he said.
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