BEVERLY HILLS, July 17, (THEWILL) – The federal government says it would no longer condone a situation whereby individuals and private organisations use remotely piloted aircraft systems, RPAS, in any part of the country to roam about Nigerian airspace in an uncontrolled and unregulated manner.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, handed this warning in Abuja on Monday while declaring open the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, RPAS, stakeholders’ workshop and symposium for African and Indian Ocean.
Disclosing that the intent and purpose of the symposium was to ensure that the country interacts adequately and shares ideas on how to efficiently keep the airspace safe, he stated that Nigeria stands to benefit from any system, ideas, advice or any guidelines that would change the future aviation positively.
According to him, “I just want to draw the attention of Nigerians and plead with them that our system, norms, values, traditions and culture are very different from that of the rest of the world where there are no gun controls. But it is not the case in Nigeria because we are different people with different set of values and understanding of issues.
“So, we cannot afford to allow drones to continue to roam about our airspace uncontrolled and unregulated. There will for sure be regulations, but, we will not kill the enthusiasm of hobbyist and other users of drones. We will only regulate and make sure that all of us remain safe and secure.”
Sirika further said, “Imagine the use of drones to drop anthrax in an envelope somewhere because, they now use GPS and cameras. It will be disastrous for our nation. It can carry weight in kilogrammes of bomb and drop it with the use of GPS on innocent people. That cannot be allowed in our country.”
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