Prominent Civil Rights Advocacy group, the Human Rights
Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA. has accused the current administration
under President Muhammadu Buhari of completely destroying the National
Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and rendering the agency inefficient.
HURIWA described as inefficient and ineffective the workings
of NEMA and other Lagos State Government’s funded first responders over their
abysmal failure to respond to the distress calls of the school children trapped
in the suspected petroleum Pipeline explosions in Lagos which may have led to
the undetermined number of human casualties.
The human rights group said the Lagos State Government must
set up a judicial probe panel into Sunday’s disaster and many others to find
lasting solutions to these avoidable disasters.
HURIWA said the Abule Ado petrol pipeline explosion in Lagos
happened and it took the relevant public-funded first responders several hours
to respond to the raging fires, adding that this shows that institutions such
as the Lagos State Fire Service, NEMA, the Lagos State Emergency Management
Agency are in need of comprehensive overhauls in order to bring them up to
speed with 21st-century demands of urgency, efficiency, and effectiveness.
“Now NEMA has become an empty talking drum and a shell of
its former self to an extent that a huge fire broke out in Lagos and ordinary
Nigerians were there at the scenes of this Emergency and were doing the jobs of
NEMA and FEDERAL and LAGOS STATE FIRE SERVICE and for at least the next one
hour there were no official first responders in place,” HURIWA added in a
statement signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and made
available to DAILY POST on Monday.
“This is a national scandal. NEMA needs to be overhauled and
made to begin to work as it used to be before the hierarchy of that agency was
politically hijacked by nonprofessionals who see it like a cash cow. The
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT must act now to stem the deterioration of the national
capacity to respond to emergencies.
“From available documentary evidence it is clear that but
for the swift efforts of ordinary Nigerians made up of mostly young Nigerian
boys who rescued most of the students of the Bethlehem Catholic Boarding
School, the number of casualties would have been multiplied. There are clear
enough evidence to show that for many hours the fires raged and the victims
were left to their own devices if not for the humanitarianism of those brave
Lagos youths who actively coordinated effective rescue operations through
unorthodox means with no facilities.
“The Federal government must do something radical and
fundamental to salvage the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) from its
current deteriorated standards. On the part of the Lagos State government, we
are shocked that these kinds of disasters keep repeating themselves
intermittently with the attendant high toll of casualties and the State
administration has not bothered to put in place effective strategies to curb
these occurrences.
“The Lagos State government must be blamed for allowing the
development of factories and residential buildings such as boarding schools to
be located within short distances from such explosive facilities like the NNPC
PIPELINES. The Lagos State administration should be blamed squarely for letting
such accidents to be choreographed and orchestrated through the Lagos State
government’s lack of urban development planning strategies and due to
corruption by the Housing development departments of the state government.”
HURIWA condemned NEMA for failing in its mandate and for
rushing to the media to claim that the explosion which occurred at Abule Ado,
Trade Fair axis of Lagos State was not caused by a disruption of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation oil pipeline.
The group carpeted the acting Coordinator, Lagos Territorial
Office, NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, for making what it described as the senseless
and irrational clarification in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in
Lagos in which he said contrary to information earlier put out on social media,
the explosion which occurred about 9 a.m. was unconnected to pipeline
vandalism.
“Why should NEMA officials speak from the background of
hearsay and rumours? Did they carry out forensic investigations to ascertain
the real cause of those explosions which as we understand consumed many
innocent school children? Is there no longer logic and scientific research
methods in that GOVERNMENT funded office to such a ridiculous extent that the
official could grant media interview to give his opinion on the cause of the
disaster that is yet to be scientifically investigated? This professional
rascalism in the administration of public offices in Nigeria must stop,” HURIWA
said.
HURIWA recalled that the NEMA’S Lagos coordinator told the
media as follows: “‘ From the information given by officials of the Lagos State
Fire Service, who are currently on the ground, the implosion is not connected
to the pipeline but MIGHT have occurred in a factory located in the Abule Ado
area. Emergency responders are on the ground while others are still on their
way to the scene. The situation is under control and we hope to get more
information soon to ascertain its cause’.”
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