The NCAA’s statement was sequel to recent online publications, which claimed that the Nigerian airspace is insecure due to a lack of radar coverage.

In a statement, NCAA Acting Director-General, Capt Chris Najomo, aligned with the position of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) on the total radar coverage of Nigeria.

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

The NCAA boss confirmed that NAMA has complete radar footage of the two violations, with full details of the identities of the aircraft and operators involved.

According to the regulator, this was made possible only due to functional primary and secondary surveillance radars in Abuja. Similar installations are in Kano, Lagos, and Port Harcourt.

Channels Television reports that the NCAA stated that the improvement of Nigeria’s aviation infrastructure and radar coverage is being backed up with five additional Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radar (MSSR) stations at Obubbra, Ilorin, Talata Mafara, Maiduguri, and Numan, to augment the four existing radar centres to achieve total coverage of the country.