‘Nigeria is safe' - NCAA dismisses concerns over air safety

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has stressed that the country's airspace is safe and secure.

The NCAA made this known after some online publications that the airspace is insecure due to a lack of radar coverage went viral.

A statement issued by the NCAA and signed by the Acting Director-General, Capt Chris Najomo reads: "THE NCAA firmly aligns with the statement from the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) on the total radar coverage of Nigeria.

"In furtherance to this, the NCAA investigated two recent cases of violations of the prohibited flight zones (DNP4) in Abuja established that both violations comprised controlled flights in controlled airspace, but strayed into restricted airspace as a result of adverse weather”.

According to the regulatory body, NAMA had full radar footage of the two violations, with full details of the identities of the aircraft and operators involved.

It explained that this was made possible only due to functional primary and secondary surveillance radars in Abuja.

The NCAA concluded that the improvement of Nigeria’s aviation infrastructure and radar coverage is being backed up with five additional MSSR stations at Obubbra, Ilorin, Talata Mafara, Maiduguri, and Numan, to augment the four existing radar centres to achieve total coverage of the country.