Nigerians Decry Emergency Management Agencies’ Poor Response
other emergency management agencies, he said LASEMA cannot arrogate to itself exclusive powers, knowledge and capacity of responding to all emergencies without the active support of relevant stakeholders like the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Rapid Respond Squad (RRS), and the State Health Environmental Monitoring Unit (SEHMU).
Some residents who spoke to The Guardian commended the agency for its efforts so far, while others said they were not doing enough yet.
Abosede Bashir, a resident of Richard Abimbola Street, Ilasa, where a building collapsed last month, praised the efforts of the officers saying: “It was some area boys that called them. I didn’t believe they would come but they came barely 10 minutes after they were called and they really tried that day. They didn’t allow those area boys to ‘operate,’ if they hadn’t come like that, those boys would have raided all the shops and houses,” she said.
But it was a different story at Cele bus stop on the Oshodi-apapa Expressway where a male trader claimed that the agency was not doing anything.
“The other day, there was one dead body that was killed by a hit-and-run vehicle at this bus stop and it stayed two days here. We could not sell our market because nobody wanted to go near it.
“We called the emergency numbers the first day and the person that answered said they are coming and we did not see them for two days. Eventually, it was removed but I don’t know who removed it,” he said.
However, Tiamiyu said: “Dead bodies are handled by the State Environmental
Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU) under the department of Health. They are the only ones capable of moving a corpse. An ambulance or emergency vehicle cannot move such.
“When they get to the scene and they see that it is a mentally disturbed person, they call the proper unit to handle them. When this happens, people would say we are wasting time but everyone has their jurisdiction and what they do.”
He urged residents of Lagos to be more patient, adding that the agency have just three service points in the state and delay may occur because of the distance and misinformation.
He further explained that people can report cases at local government secretariats, where action would be expedited, stressing that many people are yet to know the emergency numbers.
“We may not know if we are not told. Sometimes, people don’t report incidences on time and still blame us when we get there. I implore people to know and use these numbers. It has improved but we are yet to get to where we want to be.”
On residents’ attitude to emergency or accident situations, the LASEMA boss stated that people would be busy taking pictures, which they want to upload on the social media -Twitter, Facebook, Instagram; meanwhile, people are dying.
“Our agency can’t do the work alone; it needs the cooperation of Lagosians. My appeal to Lagosians is that whenever accidents occur, they should show some level of respect to our officials’ on rescue mission.
“We also received false calls or alarms sometimes, which we refer to as hoax. Some of these calls are not actionable but we don’t reject any call because you never can say which call is serious in nature. We have trained our personnel on how to be nice to people on phone,” he stated.
Cross River Fire Agency Lacks Manpower, Facilities From Tina Todo, Calabar
THE Cross River State Fire and Rescue Services (CRSFRS) lacks adequate infrastructure and manpower to effectively cover the 18 local council areas in the state.
An officer at the Public Relation Unit, Walter Okon said in Calabar, that the fire sector need to be made a federal entity to ensure safety of lives and property.
While commending the state fire service for its prompt response to emergencies, in spite of its challenges, Okon who spoke on behalf of the Director of Cross River State Rescue Service, (CRSRS), Emawo Osien, advised that private sectors should partner with the state fire service for a better response machinery. He explained that out of the 18 local councils in the state, only Calabar, the state capital has fire appliances to cover the metropolis.
His words: “The fire service should not be controlled by the state government alone. The federal government should come in. Fire service should be federalised so that its activities can be accommodated in the country’s budget like that of the Police, Road Safety, Immigration and the rest. As a matter of fact, there are supposed to be fire stations after each five kilometers.
“Safety is an important aspect in the life of everyman and Cross River State Fire Service holds it at a high esteem. We have the men on ground who are willing, ready and capable at all times to discharge their duties whenever they are called upon. Despite all these, we also face some challenges in the sense that the fire service was supposed to cover the 18 local councils, but we lack the manpower.
“The state government is trying in its own part to see that safety is fortified but there are limitations. As I speak, we only have fire engines here in Calabar but every other station outside the capital has no fire appliances to work with. When you go to Ikom, Ogoja, Akamkpa and the rest, the stations are not really functioning well.”
Okon pointed out that the service has the manpower but as far as essential duties are concerned, manpower is not enough, adding that it would be better if the government can recruit more persons. He blamed victims of fire incidents for delay in service, saying that most times, they delay in contacting the service.
On how best to tackle fire incidents in areas without facilities, he said: “We have been carrying out massive and aggressive fire tactics. Proactive measures to ensure ‘zero fire outbreak’ which means we must beef up measures and educate the people on fire prevention in schools, market places, churches and homes.”
‘Sea Surge Threatens Ondo Coastal Communities Amid Govt’s Response Failure From Oluwaseun Akingboye, Akure
ATHOUGHTHE Ondo State government is making attempts to respond to emergencies such as road accidents, disease outbreaks and collapsed buildings, the recurrent cases of sea surge, especially in the riverine areas and fire outbreaks have been largely neglected.
The Ondo State Fire Service, whose personnel go through thick and thin to rescue people in danger and with its moribund and dilapidated facilities, is particularly worrisome.
The Ayetoro people in Ilaje council are at the mercy of incessant sea surges and tidal waves, which have submerged more than three kilometres of the community without any local, state and local government rescue initiative for the people in the coastal areas. However, highway Emergency Medical Agency (ODEMSA) established by the immediate past government of Governor Olusegun Mimiko, among other programmes, are always on timely response. Their prompt emergency rescue efforts have reduced accident deaths on the roads by 79.5 per cent.
There are Emergency Medical Service
(EMS) agencies in five entr y posts across the state, equipped with well trained personnel and medical facilities at Ilara-mokin to service Akure/ilesa and Ibadan highway; ODEMSA at Ore to cater for Benin/ore Expressway, ODEMSA at Oka to service Akoko/abuja and Omuo interstate road.
While the ODEMSA in Owo caters for the emergency demands on the Owo/abuja and Benin, the Bolorunduro in Ondo East local council takes care of the Akure/ondo and Ore highways.
Aside the unfriendly working environment and poor working conditions, some of the officers, who recounted the risks associated with their job, lamented that in spite of the dangers, the state government only pays the N15 hazard allowance.
The officers, who spoke with The Guardian, said since they joined the service in the mid 1980s, the allowance has not been reviewed, although the State House of Assembly has once raised a motion for a review.
A senior officer noted that they are facing serious constraints since they were working directly under the State Ministry of Works. He explained that autonomy would have gone a long way to help them solve some of the bottlenecks peculiar to the job, but it has always met with stiff opposition. He disclosed that only Lagos State and Abuja were enjoying some considerable level of autonomy under the Federal Fire Services.
“This is the tragedy of our job. One of my bosses then, Bolanle Medayese, a Director of Fire Service, once had a terrible accident while trying to rescue some victims. Was N15 enough to treat him after the accident?” he asked.
A visit to the state headquarters of the Fire Service in Akure and other stations across the three senatorial districts of Ikare, Oka and Owo in the north; Ondo in the central; Ore and Okitipupa in the south, showed that there was so much left undone.
Checks also revealed that only Okitipupa Fire Service Station has a functional vehicle as the other six stations across the state are having worse challenges. It was learnt that the vehicles at the other stations had been parked for 15 years before they were purchased by the late Adebayo Adefarati-led administration in 2003.
Further checks however, revealed that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) donated four new utility vehicles to the fire services in the oil producing states but the vehicles were hijacked by militants from the Ilaje and Ese-odo councils, who kidnapped staff of the commission who were going to take delivery of the vehicles.
Another major challenge of the fire fighters is acute shortage of personnel. The Guardian gathered that the work force in the state is less than 70 personnel, while some fire stations have less than five staff and not more than six at any station.
Whereas, the normal standard is eight personnel who run morning, afternoon and night shifts, but reverse is the case. Special duty attachments to the Ondo State House of Assembly (ODHA), Governor’s House and Office, NTA, OSRC and other sensitive posts in the state have stopped since 1992 due to shortage of staff.
This explains the poor intervention by the fire fighters during the 2014 gas explosion near St Thomas’ Cathedral along Arakale Road, Akure and the last fire outbreak at the Governor’s Office during the last visit of the factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ali Modu Sheriff in 2016.
Confirming the director’s incident that got worse due to poor working tools, an officer told Theguardian in Ondo that: “We don’t have enough tools such as the