The government of Akwa Ibom State has held a two- day workshop to sensitise the citizenry on tips to mitigate disaster in their offices, homes and environments.
The two-day workshop, which drew participants from the security and other relevant stakeholders across the state and beyond entitled, ‘enhancing disaster management in Akwa Ibom state’, was organised by the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) under the office of the Deputy Governor.
Declaring the workshop open, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, frowned at National Emergency Management Agency-(NEMA) for not intervening in disaster mitigation in the state for over a year despite several distress calls to the agency to assist in critical moments.
Represented by the Deputy Governor, Mr. Moses Ekpo, the governor assured of his preparedness to continue to support office of the deputy governor in series of programmes to enlighten residents of the state on how to keep their offices, homes and environments free from disasters of any kind and how to manage disasters should they eventually occur.
The governor, who thanked his deputy, SEMA and staff of the office of the deputy governor for organising the workshop, used the opportunity to list disasters that had occurred in the state in the past two years and how he had responded to them, assuring the residents that his administration would not abandon any section of the state in moment of disaster.
The deputy governor who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Nkopuruk Ekaiko, said his office has the core mandate to mount the workshop on the subject matter to create awareness among the various stakeholders in the state.
He called for partnership among the stakeholders, saying that issues of disaster management is not a responsibility of government alone.
Also speaking, the Director-General of NEMA, Engr. Mustapha, represented by Deputy Director, Ben O. Oghenah, said Akwa Ibom state has blazed the trail again as the first to hold the workshop which he described as very important and called on other states of the federation to follow suit.
To the representative of ExxonMobil, the co- sponsor of the workshop, Mr. Chinedu Emeka, described the workshop as a commendable initiative that his company would continue to identify with.
The workshop featured no fewer than sixteen presentations by various ways to mitigate disaster around our offices, homes and environments by experts and professionals on disaster management.
Some of the paper presenters included Engineer Uwemedimo Umoumoh whose presentation centred on general safety, Dr Enobong Essien, commissioner for environment who drilled the participants on general environmental awareness andcauses of building collapse and mitigation – The Akwa ibom state experience by commissioner for housing and special duties, Mr. Akan Okon.
The workshop which was chaired by a disaster management expert and commissioner for Health, Dr Dominic Ukpong had vote of thanks moved by the permanent secretary, Nkopuruk Ekaiko, while the commissioner for information and strategy, Mr. Charles Udoh and chairman communique’ drafting committee read the communique’ which was later adopted but no copy was made available to the press.

Akaiso Akaiso, Uyo