The Surveyor General of the Federation (SGOF), Abduganiyu Adebomehin, on Thursday reiterated the need for security agencies to work with his office in their planning of comprehensive security strategies in the country.
Specifically, he noted that mapping remains an integral part of any security architecture, stressing that the country cannot be an exception if it must effectively combat the current insecurity nationwide.
Adebomehin made the remarks in Abuja while hosting the Group Managing Director of Nembe Exploration and Production Company Limited, Victor Okoronkwo, who visited his office with his management team.
A statement by the Head, Information and Publication Relations in the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (OSGOF), Henry David, quoted Adebomehin as saying that the office has now fully digitised all its materials.
Adebomehin said: ”I don’t know how they will be talking about security and they don’t know they are going to use maps. If they can subscribe, we’ll be able to give them maps. We have been able to digitalise everything.
“We called for paper presentation on mapping at a time and only a few of them were able to turn up while others were giving different excuses, but those who attended the presentation gave the feedback on why we need this.”
He stressed that the OSGOF now has a full data base attached, emphasising the need to carry his office along in security planning.
He added:“ What we have done is to digitise each of the states, and we have a database that we attached to it, except where we are not fully convinced that we have enough data.“
In his remarks, the Nembe E&P boss, Okoronkwo highlighted the importance of the OSGOF office in terms of data mapping, management and marketing.
He said: “ The Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation is a very important one when it concerns special data mapping, management and marketing. What most people don’t realise is that in some countries, surveying is in defence.
“Yes, when they started the GPS, there was a deliberate effort to design it for the military, so they didn’t want civilians to use GPS and satellite imaging to locate a place and then commit crimes.
“We have implemented digital mapping and then I proposed to match that with spot images and all that then matching them together. These are precursors to what is known today as Google Map.“
On his mission to OSGOF, he stated that it was partly to present the new company’s identity and discuss other related issues.
“We are re-uniting and connecting with OSGOF and it is a great experience for us at Nembe Exploration and Production Company, and it’s my pleasure coming to this office to present to you the conference bag, our company identity and others.
“We pray that the country will go from strength to strength because when I look at survey, when I came into survey, I never knew that surveying was worth talking about,” he was quoted as saying.
Emmanuel Addeh
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