How locally made drones can tackle insecurity – Inventor, Okoye

Okoye Ogochukwu had since childhood found delight in giving big electromechanical inventions a glare of admiration. At an early age, he had watched Caterpillar’s earth movers, graders, and big trucks as they worked. “I am usually someone who likes big things. Growing up, I liked the Caterpillar brand of earth movers and grader. I always […]

Okoye Ogochukwu had since childhood found delight in giving big electromechanical inventions a glare of admiration. At an early age, he had watched Caterpillar’s earth movers, graders, and big trucks as they worked.

“I am usually someone who likes big things. Growing up, I liked the Caterpillar brand of earth movers and grader. I always like watching them, or large trucks. Those are things I like,” Okoye said.

Time has grown his obsession for these inventions, that, from trucks and caterpillars, his interest had gone up to things that fly, particularly air planes. “You know planes are also very big. So, I used to wonder how something so big can fly,” he added.

Dreams are part of every child’s life. However, not every child has his/her dreams fulfilled. But for Okoye, from mere fantasies, his dream is gradually coming true.

Now a trained Engineer who works with an engineering company, he has taken his childhood dream to another level.

At the back of his house, he has made what could be described as a small workshop or factory where he makes drones.

In an interview with Daily Trust, Okoye has explained how his locally made drones could be helpful in the fight against insurgency.

 

According to him, his drones that could perform the role of surveillance could be deployed to provide the security agents with vital information regarding the activities of bandits, terrorists or kidnappers.

“I will use the Abuja-Kaduna highway where you always have attacks, kidnappings and stuff like that [for example]. Imagine if you can have a small craft running patrols on these areas from time to time. If you have two or three [drones], that run missions of two hours or even an hour each, and it comes in to land while another takes its place, you can have eyes on these roads or whatever areas, you can have eyes on these roads 24 hours,” Okoye said

He added that whoever is planning to attack or disrupt peace knows that there are eyes on the road. This according to him could help greatly in the fight against banditry, kidnapping and terrorism, menaces that have held the country to ransom for over a decade.

“These things (drones) can also be used as an early warning system. By the time these guys are mobilizing, they are moving towards their target, you would have known, ‘oh see these guys are coming!’ and then you can send a strike team to respond to them.”

Okoye revealed that the drones he makes are not expensive. “It doesn’t have to be expensive, what you see around here can do it comfortably. It’s just to have a good camera, have a sizable battery and then you run these missions.”

The engineer who hails from Anambra state has also narrated how he started making drones. He said that although his love for electromechanical devices and machines dates back to his childhood, the idea of making drones was born out of his desire to make a toy for his child.

He also revealed that the first drone he made crashed. “First few ones I made; I was convinced it wasn’t actually for [children]. You know it’s not a toy. It’s actually a very dangerous thing, it can injure you. So, from that point I knew, it’s not something a child would be playing with. But getting it to fly, the first one I made, getting it to fly was so nice, so rewarding, seeing it flying, even though it crashed, but I was so happy,” he added.

The electromechanical engineer said that after the first crash, he was so worried that he stopped making any attempt to make another. However, he said that he still kept the idea and continued researching.

He researched the Radio Control (RC) link to make sure he does not encounter the challenge again. Okoye further said that it was difficult for him to abandon this quest to make drones because of how much he had already spent in purchasing materials.

Okoye said he uses local materials like forms and other equipment he buys from China to make his drones. There at his small workshop, he has demonstrated how he makes drones and has even flown one of the drones he has made to show how well it works.

Many inventions like this have been made by Nigerians but have hardly grown beyond prototypes to something that could be mass produced. Daily Trust had in an article on the 25th of July 2021 reported how many inventions made by Nigerians have failed to fly.