Oyo deputy gov tasks LGs on disaster management

Oyo State deputy governor, Chief Moses Alake Adeyemo, has charged the local government authorities in the state to emulate the state government's prompt response to the recent flood disaster that ravaged the city of Ibadan and its environs.Chief Adeyemo gave the charge while declaring open a two-day workshop on sensitisation for the establishment of Local Emergency Management Committees (LEMC's) in the 33 local government areas of the state.The workshop, according to a release signed by the Special Assistant, Media, to the deputy governor, Mr Sola Adegoke, was organised by Oyo State Environmental Management Agency (OYSEMA) in collaboration with the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), held at Lafia Hotel, Ibadan.While declaring that the state was still mourning the monumental losses caused by the flood disaster, Chief Adeyemo identified rainstorms, fire outbreaks, epidemics, road crashes, political violence, communal clashes and chieftaincy tussles as other disaster risks capable of destabilising the communities.He, therefore, reiterated the need to address the challenges by 'designing a comprehensive disaster management institutional framework that could help greatly in responding to disaster and emergencies at various levels'.Chief Adeyemo also explained that the workshop was borne out of the 'collective resolve to mainstream disaster risk reduction into the grass roots development, saying that NEMA was synonymous with the federal government, SEMA to the state government, while at the local level it was desirable and expedient to establish Local Emergency Management Committee to manage disaster at the local level.'Earlier in his speech, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Assistant co-ordinator, South West Zone, Mr Adebiyi Babatunde, explained that the workshop was aimed at sensitising policy decision makers on the importance of LEMC, saying 'where LEMC is not in place, it will be difficult to intervene during emergency period.'The workshop was attended by council chairmen, representatives of Community Development Associations (CDAs) and all the Directors of Personnel Management (DPM) in the 33 local government areas of the state.
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