The absence of survey beacons at some boundary corners may hinder the claimant to assert
full right of ownership on the land not minding that he has the plan and some survey records
of the property. Other problems caused by the destruction of survey beacons are:
(i) Inconsistency of the survey:
A survey of a property is complete when what is on the paper (plan) is seen physically
on the ground. Therefore, when the survey beacons are destroyed, the records of the
property are incomplete because the beacons serve as the major link between the plans
and the land area represented in the plans. The destruction of survey beacons may
render the whole survey observation based on the survey beacons inconsistency and
worthless.
(ii) Land-in-dispute:
An occupier of a piece of land knows the extent of his boundary, not only through the
plan but also through the physical land marks (beacons) established by the surveyor at
the boundary corners during the course of his survey work. When the survey beacons
are not properly in position, the adjourning landowners may extend his area of
operation, which will cause dispute. An example is the Nigerian Cameroon land-in-
dispute over Bakassi Peninsula. Fubara (2002), in his opinion about this dispute said
that the failure of Nigeria to involve the competent experts in the areas of demarcation
and interpretation of boundaries is the actual pitfall in the various episodes leading to
Nigeria’s loss of the Bakassi Peninsula and other parts of the Nigerian Cameroon
border to Cameroon in the world court judgment. Land-in-dispute is common and
sometimes of serious consequences to an extent that lives and properties are destroyed
during such clashes. It is clear that majority of the crises that occur in Nigeria and
elsewhere in Africa are based on dispute over land.
(iii) No relationship between Old and New Work :
Surveyors may not connect new surveys to the old surveys when the beacons are not
in-situ. The permanency of survey beacons on the ground make the survey records
collected as a result of that survey significance. However, the links, which the survey
beacons, established with the survey records help the surveyor to link his future
surveys to old survey. This is not possible when the survey beacons have been
destroyed.
(iv) Loss of Services to the Allied Professions:
The Engineers, the Architects, the Town Planners, and other land use professional
base their work on the base map produced by the surveyors. The base map which serve
them as guide is complete when the beacons are physically on the ground to help in
setting out structure. Whenever the beacons are not on the ground physically, the
translations of the drawings are usually not possible until when such beacons are re-
established which involves more expenditure and time.