3.1 The Survey Co-ordination Act
Key Takeaways
- The Survey Co-ordination Act is 1962 No. 28, commencement 13 September 1962, amended by 1968 No. 42; it has four sections.
- Section 1(1) requires not less than three months' notice of survey work to the Director of Federal Surveys, or such shorter period as the Director may allow.
- The Director may give a counter-notice within one month, requiring survey marks to be erected, aerial films to be processed in Nigeria, records to be furnished, and connection to a Government mark within 16.09 km.
- Section 1(7) excludes from 'survey work' anything done by or for the Armed Forces or a survey department, in areas specified by ministerial regulations, or solely for the purpose of determining boundaries of any property.
- Section 2 penalties are a fine not exceeding N400 on summary conviction and N1,000 on conviction on indictment; section 3 provides for compensation determined by the High Court.
3.1 The Survey Co-ordination Act
Statutory reference: Survey Co-ordination Act, 1962 No. 28, commencement 13 September 1962, amended by 1968 No. 42. Long title: "An Act to provide for the furnishing to the Director of Federal Surveys of information relating to survey work; to provide for the carrying out of certain additional operations, by persons doing the work; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid."
The whole Act runs to four sections: 1. Duty to furnish information and power to require works in connection with certain surveys; 2. Offences; 3. Compensation; 4. Short title. There is no section imposing area or distance thresholds, no ninety-day deposit rule, and no security-clearance regime. Answer Paper VI from what the Act says.
One terminology point. The Act speaks throughout of the Director of Federal Surveys, the office as it existed in 1962. The functions are exercised today through the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGoF). In an examination answer, cite the statutory office and note the modern successor - do not silently substitute one for the other.
1. The notice requirement (section 1(1) and (2))
1(1) No survey work within the meaning of this Act shall be carried out unless the person responsible for carrying out the work has given to the Director of Federal Surveys ... not less than three months then next preceding the day on which the work commences, or such shorter period as the Director may allow, notice of the work in accordance with the provisions of this section.
The obligation falls on the person responsible for carrying out the work - not on the client, and not on the Council. The period is three months, and the only relaxation is a shorter period allowed by the Director.
Section 1(2) prescribes the content of the notice:
- (a) the name and address of the person giving the notice and, if he is carrying out the work under a contract or arrangement with another person, the name and address of that other person;
- (b) particulars of the work and the purposes of the work, and of the area to which it relates; and
- (c) the dates on which it is proposed to begin and end the work,
and the notice shall contain a sketch map illustrating the work.
2. The Director's counter-notice (section 1(3))
On receiving a notice the Director shall forthwith give notice of its receipt, and may, at any time before the expiration of one month beginning with the date the notice was given, give a counter-notice requiring the person to do all or any of the following:
| Para. | Requirement |
|---|---|
| (a) | To erect survey marks of such description and at such reasonable points or within such reasonable limits as the counter-notice specifies. |
| (b) | To process all aerial films in connection with the work in Nigeria, and submit them for examination before prints are made from them or before they are used for any purposes whatsoever. |
| (c) | Within one month beginning with the date of completion of the work or of the production of the thing or information in question, whichever last occurs, to furnish the Director with: (i) two copies of every map and plan produced in consequence of the work, showing the date made and indicating all connections with survey marks; (ii) the original or a copy of the negatives of all aerial photographs produced in connection with the work; and (iii) the original or a copy of all field observations, notes and computations made for the purposes of the work, and particulars of all permanent survey marks erected in the course or in consequence of the work. |
| (d) | Where a survey mark under the control of the Government of the Federation or a State is situated within a distance of less than 16.09 kilometres from any point at which the work is carried out, to secure that the work is connected to the mark (or to such one of them as the person may select). |
Three numbers to hold: three months before commencement; one month for the Director to counter-notice; one month after completion to furnish records. And 16.09 km - which is ten statute miles in metric dress, a giveaway that the drafting is 1962 imperial converted.
Section 1(4) completes the loop to the States: it is the duty of the Director to give one copy of each map and plan which relates to a State, furnished under paragraph (c), to the Surveyor-General of that State.
3. Vesting of marks and materials (section 1(5))
Two classes of survey mark vest in the Minister absolutely, by virtue of the section and without further assurance:
- (a) all marks erected in pursuance of a paragraph (a) counter-notice; and
- (b) any of the marks whose particulars are furnished under paragraph (c)(iii) as to which the Director gives notice, within one month of the giving of the particulars, that the marks are to vest in the Minister.
Further, any matter furnished to the Director under paragraph (c) - the maps, negatives, field notes and computations - shall be the property of the Minister and may be used by the Director for the purposes of his office in such manner as he thinks fit.
Section 1(6): without prejudice to any other means of service, a document authorised or required to be served under the section may be served by post, but shall not be treated as duly served by post unless it is sent in a registered letter.
4. What counts as "survey work" (section 1(7))
"Survey work" means carrying out or ascertaining, with a view to determining the shape or size of any part of the surface of any land (including any natural feature of the land), all or any of:
- (a) traverses observed by angular and linear measurements;
- (b) lines of levels observed by optical or hydrostatic methods;
- (c) linear measurements by radio transmission, radar, or any electronic or electromagnetic means;
- (d) topographical or hydrographic surveys, triangulation and trilateration;
- (e) terrestrial photography specially made for survey purposes by camera-theodolite, stereo camera or similar instrument;
- (f) aerial photography for survey purposes;
- (g) heighting of points by aneroid barometer, altimeter, hypsometer, airborne profile recorder or any airborne auxiliary equipment;
- (h) astronomical observations for the determination of azimuth, latitude or longitude.
The three exclusions
The definition does not include any such activity undertaken:
- by or on the instructions of the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian Air Force, or the survey department of the Federation or of a State;
- in any part of Nigeria specified for the purposes of this paragraph by regulations made by the Minister; or
- solely for the purpose of determining boundaries of any property.
The third exclusion is the most consequential and the most examinable. Ordinary cadastral practice - a boundary survey for a certificate of occupancy - falls outside the Act altogether. That is precisely why the deposit obligations for cadastral plans are found in the State Survey Laws (a copy to the State Surveyor-General within one month of completion) and not here.
5. Offences (section 2)
A person other than the Director who fails to comply with any requirement made by or in pursuance of section 1 is guilty of an offence and liable:
- (a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding N400;
- (b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding N1,000.
No imprisonment is provided. Section 2(2) applies the familiar corporate-officer extension: where an offence by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or attributable to any neglect on the part of, a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer, that officer as well as the body corporate is deemed guilty.
6. Compensation (section 3)
Any person whose property is transferred to the Minister by section 1, or who incurs expense or suffers loss by reason of subsection (3) or (5) of that section, shall:
- (a) be paid adequate compensation by the Minister in respect of the property, expense or loss; and
- (b) be entitled to refer any question as to his interest in the property and as to the amount of compensation for determination by the High Court having jurisdiction where the property is situated - or, so far as no value of property is involved, by the High Court having jurisdiction in the area where any part of the relevant survey work was carried out.
Expenses incurred by the Minister under the section are defrayed out of moneys provided by the National Assembly.
Section 3 is the balance for section 1(5). The State may compulsorily acquire your marks and your data, but it must pay adequate compensation, and the amount is justiciable in the High Court.
Under section 1(1) of the Survey Co-ordination Act, how much notice of survey work must be given, and to whom?
A firm carries out a boundary survey of a residential plot for the purpose of obtaining a certificate of occupancy. Does the Survey Co-ordination Act require notice of that work?
Where a counter-notice under section 1(3)(c) applies, within what period after completing the work must the surveyor furnish the Director with maps, negatives and field records?
Under section 1(3)(d), a counter-notice may require the survey work to be connected to a Government-controlled survey mark. What proximity triggers that power?