By Miriam Humbe
The Director General National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mrs Zubaida Umar has directed that all newly acquired Search and Rescue equipment and consumables for NEMA zonal and operation offices be deployed with immediate effect as part of preparation for the 2024 raining season in addition to other disasters in Nigeria.
Manzo Ezekiel, NEMA’s Head of Press Unit revealed this in a statement signed on Wednesday.
Mrs Umar gave the directive on Wednesday in Abuja during an inspection visit to NEMA warehouses to ascertain the Agency’s relief stockpiles and operational equipment.
The visit was the first as she recently assumed office as Director General of NEMA.
Some of the equipment to be deployed include mobile water purification equipment, mobile incident command vehicles, incident response vehicles, life jackets and other lifesaving gadgets currently staged at the NEMA warehouse and other storage locations in Abuja.
She emphasized the imperative of timely response to disasters, noting that this can only be achieved through proactive measures that include prepositioning of equipment and training of personnel that will operate the lifesaving assets in the event of sudden onset disasters across Nigeria.
Similarly, she directed that there should be regular stocktaking of relief items in NEMA warehouses nationwide including dates of expiry for timely deployment to persons in need in the event of emergency.
