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Vows to Probe Incident, Assess Environment
- Safiu Kehinde
The Lagos State Government has faulted social media reports on the collapsed school building in Aguda-Ogba area of the state.
NPO Reported that the school identified as Yemco Schools, had on Monday collapsed with videos shared on X capturing moments the three-storey building came down crashing.
Adrresing newsmen at the scene of the incident on Tuesday, Oke Osanyintolu, the Lagos State Emergency Manangement Agency (LASEMA), expressed his disatisfaction over the media reports.
The LASEMA boss declared that the incident was an emergency and not a disaster as he confirmed that no fatality or casuality was reported.
He claimed that several agencies in charge of buildings and infrastructure in the state had earlier issued warning to the owner of the school.
“As a disaster manager, I will not define as a disaster. I will define it as an emergency because there is no casualty, no fatality.
“When the relevant agencies, the building controlling agency, the first responder agency knew that there is a defect in this building, they raised an alarm.
“They put on the alarm system which we call a ali warning in the emergency circle. After giving the ali warning, they moved in and sealed the place up.
“The people are aware of what was going on. So, the stopped activities of this building and moved the children away from this place.
“If the relevant agencies had not provided ali warning and the people did not comply with the ally warning, you can see the extent of mas casualty that we will be expriencing here.
“We were able to put a lot of things in place.” The LASEMA boss said.
Prior to that, Osanyintolu warned Lagos residents against believing emergency reports propagated by social media.
He charged them to always contact the state government for confirmation of the reports.
“Firstly, I need to appeal to good people of Lagos State that they should not listen to anybody except the state government.
“In Lagos State, we have our emegency number. Secondly, we have the number of the Commissioner of Information.
“These are the people that are going to give information about the way things are.
“Stop listening to unprofressional people that want to create chaos in the system.
“The good people of Lagos State must never panic. I can assure you that we are on top of our game.” He said.
Osanyintolu however vowed to carry out holisitc investigation and evaluation of the school building and other structures in the affected area.
Meanwhile, other agencies present alongside LASEMA at the scene of the incident include the Lagos State Technical Committee of Council for the Regulation of Engineering Limited, and the Lagos State Material Testing Laboratory.
Also present at the scene are personnel of the Lagos State Police Command and the Neighbourhood Watch.