Under the aegis of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors, surveyors have urged the government to give its members who work on construction projects throughout the nation sufficient security.
The professional association bemoaned the failure of the federal and state governments to provide sufficient security for surveyors working on construction sites.
This was said by NIS President Matthew Ibitoye during Tuesday’s 2025 NIS Board of Fellows investiture ceremony in Akure, the capital of Ondo State.
According to The Punch, a group of surveyors who were working on a site in the state’s Akure North Local Government Area at Ilu-Abo last month were abducted but subsequently freed. In order to achieve this, certain government representatives urged NIS members to use security firms to safeguard themselves whenever they were traveling to work locations.
Ibitoye criticized the government for asking surveyors to accompany security guards to the farm, saying that this was completely inappropriate.
He claimed that clients were not billed for security because the services they were providing were not secure and that houses may be targets of security threats.When a surveyor goes to the farm, he must go and raise security. Did we bill our client with security money? The services we are providing are outside the security. We didn’t bill them for security. “If we are to bill security into it, then the security architect must pay, and definitely, the cost of surveying will be high.” He said, “It is very wrong for any government official to raise such a thing. You can’t expect an individual to start going to the police and hire policemen to go to work.”
“It is not only the bush that we can have security threat. Even right away in your home, you have security threats. Does it mean that the police must be in your home, in your gate? When you are going out, they must line up on the street? So, it is an example that the government is failing us.”
The NIS President president however advised that since the government had failed in providing adequate security, surveyors should put in adequate measure to ensure their safety before going on site.
He also urged his members to avoid going to sites alone and always carry out due diligence before going out.
“Before you even go out, try to do some underground work and see how safe the place is. Don’t go alone. Carry along the families that gave you work because they know the people living around them.
“In most cases, study the place very well. If they are expecting you in the afternoon, you go very early in the morning. If they are expecting you in the morning, then you go later in the night when people are yet to come up. You can also make use of technology to carry out some jobs without necessarily visiting the site,” Ibitoye advised.
In his own remarks at the ceremony, the Chairman, NIS, Board of Fellows, Olusola Atilola, while welcoming the 39 newly admitted fellows admonished them to be of good conduct and enforce the constitution and code of ethics of the profession.
According to him, being a fellow of the profession posed an enormous duty to serve the institution and the society at large.
He charged, “Fellows are the conscience of the profession and custodians of her values and traditions. As leaders, you must provide purposeful leadershi and enforce the constitution and code of ethics of the profession. You must be an epitome of integrity, honour, transparency, fair pla, and accountability in all your dealings.”
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