Only Qualified, Registered Surveyors To Operate In Delta – Commissioner

The Delta Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Urban Development, Sir Patrick Ferife,  has said that only qualified and registered surveyors will be allowed to operate in the state.

Ferife made the pledge in Asaba, when the President of the Nigeria Institute of Surveyors (NIS), Chief Yakubu Maikano, and executive members of the institute paid him a courtesy visit.

The commissioner assured his visitors that the Delta Government was committed to ensuring that surveyors functioned properly in the state.

He said that the importance of the functions of the surveyors could not be over emphasised.

Ferife also said that without the input of surveyors, the Land Information System and Geographical Information System in the state would have been a mirage.

He said that the Delta Boundary Committee headed by the Deputy Governor, Prof. Amos Utuama, would be briefed on the need to ensure speedy demarcation and survey of boundaries in the state.

Earlier, Maikano had said that the boundaries of all the 25 local government areas in Delta were yet to be surveyed.

He also said that the state was yet to demarcate and survey the interstate boundaries between the state and the five other states it presently shared boundaries with.

Maikano said that land mass was one of the indices for revenue sharing both at the federal and state levels, adding that  a state or local government that did not know its land mass might be losing revenue.

He further said that surveying was an essential tool for planning and development and its importance could not be over-emphasised.

Maikano said that the management, allocation, and effective utilisation of land could not take place without surveying.

The NIS president said that in Civil Engineering, roads, drainages and airports, there were components of surveying.

He said that some government projects failed or collapsed because the survey components of such projects were not supervised by qualified surveyors.

Maikano, therefore, solicited the commissioner in creating the awareness in government that surveyors should be involved in the supervision of the survey components in all government projects.

He said that this would ensure that standard and specifications were met and sustained.