Admin l Thursday, February 22, 2018
LAGOS, Nigeria – The fleet of rescue and emergency equipment of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, increased on Thursday with the procurement of additional equipment by the Agency to aid quick emergency interventions.
Speaking at the unveiling of the new equipment at the LRU Office, Cappa, Oshodi, the State Commissioner for the Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Relations Mr. Seye Oladejo, said the new equipment is meant to increase operational efficiency of LASEMA.
He explained that the huge investment of the present administration in emergency response is a way of showing investors that the City of Lagos is safe and responsive to emergency issues comparable to other cities in the developed world.
The Commissioner, represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Jemilade Longe, disclosed that the procurement of the equipment was as a result of the realisation of the need to improve the response rate of getting to accident victims and giving them necessary assistance.
“We have noticed that when people get trapped in vehicles during accidents and emergency responders are on ground at the emergency scene, the absence of equipment that would enable them to break into the affected vehicle to rescue the victims usually renders the whole rescue operation meaningless and the efforts of the LASEMA team would amount to nothing at that point in time” Oladejo stated.
Also speaking at the event, the General Manager of LASEMA, Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu said that the procurement of the equipment affirms the resolve of Governor Ambode to periodically increase and upgrade the fleet of the Agency’s equipment.
According to him “The procurement of these equipment at this point cannot be overemphasised as the need to provide proper extrication and timely rescue to trapped victims in any form of life-threatening incidents such as collapsed building and road traffic accident amongst others are pivotal to the Agency’s personnel in conducting these onerous tasks during emergency intervention”.
Tiamiyu added that the Power Bikes are essential in conducting incident assessment and would be deployed to incident scenes to carry out on-the-spot assessments as well as monitoring and surveillance exercises towards mitigating against some unexpected events that may lead to loss of lives and property.
While appreciating the Governor for his unflinching commitment to the development of the State, Tiamiyu used the occasion to plead with Lagosians to continue to support the present administration towards reducing disasters to the barest minimum by adhering strictly to all safety rules and regulations. The newly procured equipment include Power Bikes, Rescue Ram, Cutters, Combi Tools and Concrete Cutters among others.
