While Nigerian has been battling with the growing insecurity across the country with little or no success, a surveillance expert has assured that the country can achieve results in a short time with the deployment of the right technology.
Speaking recently during a television interactive season, Ademola Lawal, CEO, Propel Aerial Services, a surveillance manufacturing company, assured that Nigeria can defeat kidnapping and related crimes within three month by deploying drones in the sky.
“If any state engages us to deploy our drones for their internal security, I assure you that we can curb kidnappings in three months because you can completely cover an area, get the necessary information and movements without being there, then use it for ground work. With drones there is no dark area in any state, which means no hiding for criminals”, he said.
According to him, with drones, there are no dark areas in any state, difficult terrain and bad road network, which Police and other security outfits often use as excuse not deploy their men and officers to fight crime and violence.
“So, where will the kidnappers hide when the drones are flying unnoticeably over them and picking location, movement information and pictures needed to invade their hideout to arrest and free their captives”, Lawal said.
Explaining how drones can achieve such great feats within a short period, Lawal, a drone pilot endorsed by both Nigerian and South African civil aviation authorities, noted that drones, which come in long and short ranges, can cover almost 1,000 kilometers in an hour or two, across dark areas and challenging terrains, picking information, movements and pictures, as well as, transmitting them to the certified security authorities for necessary action.
With the huge flight capacity, Lawal said that drones can fly across and monitor the 2,000 kilometers of Nigerian borders, pick information and transmit to border security for necessary actions, hence safeguarding the country.
“We need to be able to launch long-range drones within the country to be able to secure our borders and make sure we can protect our areas,” Lawal said.
Explaining further, the surveillance expert disclosed that drones are the safest and sustainable measure against crime because they can fly in day time, at night and able to give information required for necessary actions.
“We deploy these drones in heavy duty challenged areas where we know that we are able to impact and deliver results that people are looking for. So, the perfect analysis of the location, activities, and movements around the targeted areas by the drones, give half of the success anticipated at the end of the exercise”, he said.
So far, Propel Aerial Services, Lawal’s company is partnering with other relevant bodies to berth the drones for security services in Nigeria.
His company is in partnership with Dacon in Kaduna, an arm of the armed forces that manufactures hardware for the military locally.
“We have also gone into partnership with the Nigerian Air Force Investment Limited, they are licensed to operate drones, so that we can have the capacity by bringing our trained pilots and heavy duty equipment, such that we can support the efforts of the state, and the federal governments in securing the borders and the country”, he said.
For doubters of the ability of drones to deliver on security, Lawal cleared the air saying, “Drones are machines; they need battery and fuel to fly. So, as long as there is fuel and battery, they will keep flying. Again, our pilots are trained and we rotate them like airlines to make sure nobody is fatigued while on duty”.
Taking the drone matter to a higher level, Lawal noted that his company developed two models of drones; a long-range, which can do 1000 km in an hour or an hour 30 minutes depending on wind resistance and inspection drones for surveillance.
He invites the public to the official launch of the two models in March, after over 90 hours of test for each.
