NEMA Advises On Early Warning Measures

The Director-General,
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Mohammed Sidi has advised Nigerians to join in the fight against disasters by applying early warning measures.
The director-general gave the advice in Owerri during a workshop organised by the agency with the theme: “Building Resilience of Communities and Community Managed Early Warning System”.
Sidi, who was represented by the NEMA Coordinator, Owerri Operations Office, Dr Innocent Ezeaku, also urged the people to be conscious of early signs of disaster.
The NEMA boss advised that Nigerians must be wary of hazards of disasters, saying that the warning became imperative to avoid being victims of natural disasters.
He said most of the disasters that occurred in the country were instigated by human actions.
Sidi, however, said that many of the disasters could have been averted if people applied early measures.
He said that the agency was poised to carry out awareness campaigns on early warning measures to every part of the country.
He urged Nigerians to contribute their quota to such efforts by adhering strictly to the rules of maintaining the environment.
Sidi said that natural disasters had caused many setbacks to Nigerian economy, including the loss of many of its resources to disasters.
“In 2012, this nation spent billions of naira sending relief materials to victims of flood,” he said.
He said that Nigeria also recorded setbacks in food supply in 2012.
He urged Imo Government to setup Local Emergency Management Committee (LEMC) in all the 27 local government areas of the state.
The director-general said that since most of the disasters occurred in the rural areas, there was urgent need for government to establish local machineries at the grassroots.
He also called on the state government to ensure that all the drainage systems within its jurisdiction, especially in the state capital were functional to enable water flow in its normal direction.
According to him, NEMA has approved relief materials to support some flood victims in September in Orlu and some residents of Federal Housing in Owerri.
Mr Anthony Awuka, the Secretary to the State Government, represented by Mrs  Uche Eze,  said the state government had inaugurated LEMC in some local government councils.
“We have commissioned LEMC in some LGAs but before the end of this year, we are going to commission the remaining LGAs,” he said.
Our correspondent reports that representatives of the Fire Service, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, NGOs and a cross section of youth corps members attended the workshop.

. L:R Commandant, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Enugu State, Mr Nathaniel Ubong; representative of Enugu State Government, Mr Chime Richard and representative of Commandant, Nigerian Army 82 Garrison, Capt. Umar Garba, at the NSCDC 2014 security summit in Enugu, recently