Lagos – The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) said it is committed to improving emergency/disaster management through collaboration with relevant stakeholders to mitigate tragedy.
This is contained in a statement signed by the Public Affairs Officer of the agency, Mr Kehinde Adebayo, and made available to newsmen in Lagos on Wednesday.
The statement quoted the General Manager of the agency, Mr Michael Akindele, saying that the collaboration with the Lagos State Command, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) was to welcome the newly deployed commandant.
He said it would also create avenue to fashion out other areas of collaborations with the corps in the area of emergency and disaster management.
Akinyele said the innovation and collaboration is in line with the vision of the present administration to improve safety of lives and property.
According to him, the agency is poised towards enlarging its scope and cooperation with all relevant stakeholders.
He said such enlargement would include the NSCDC in curbing activities such as: crowd control, improve search and rescue with the use of sniffer dogs during recovery operation at scene of collapsed building.
Akinyele said that one of the major challenges during emergency was the issue of on-lookers, who are always in the habit of taking photographs thereby hampering the emergency workers from carrying out their duties.
He, therefore, appealed to the commandant to always assist the agency and other emergency responders on crowd control in this regard.
The new commandant, Mr Tajudeen Balogun, said that emergency was not peculiar to the state alone.
Balogun commended the agency and the Lagos State Government in providing adequate and prompts response as well as sustaining intervention in all forms of emergencies and disasters in the state.
Balogun promised that the command would maintain a 24-hour relationship as principal stakeholders with the agency.
He also promised to assist in the areas of information gathering and deployment of technical support such as sniffer dog for adequate and prompt intervention during emergency and disaster in the state. (NAN)