The Senate, yesterday, bemoaned the Lagos flood disaster and ordered the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency to remove all wrecked ships from the country’s coastal lines
Also the Senate President, David Mark, declared that the magnitude of the Lagos flood disaster requires declaration of emergency, but doubts whether such move could not be misconstrued to mean the setting aside of the state government.
It observed a minute silence for all those that lost their lives in the Flood and also urged the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to urgently repair all federal roads affected by the floods.
The resolution was sequel to a motion moved by Senator Ganiyu Solomon (ACN, Lagos) and six others on the flood disaster.
Moving the motion, the lawmaker noted that the carnage left behind by Sunday’s torrential rains in parts of Lagos was tragic as many lives were lost and properties worth hundreds of millions of naira washed away.
He further noted that the state which is the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria had been shut down and economic activities grounded to a halt with fears that the state could be submerged.
However, Senator Solomon told the Upper House that a federal road, the Abeokuta Expressway collapsed in three places, thereby hampering the movement of people in and out of Lagos and that axis of the south west.
He added that the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway was also flooded and is in danger of collapse and requires urgent attention.
Also, the lawmaker complained that several ships lost anchor and have run aground at coasts further compounding the problems of the state.
He urged the federal and the state governments to provide relief materials to victims and stem the rising tide in order to avert further loss of lives as they try to prevent future occurrences.
Contributing to the debate, Sen. George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers), described the flood disaster in Lagos as a national disaster.
He called on the nation’s meteorologist to “take a step further by providing more information on such disasters which will perhaps predict areas that maybe affected to make for planning and early evacuation of people.”
On his part Sen. Ayogu Eze (PDP, Enugu) noted that the incident in Lagos was a wakeup call for the world to take the issue of weather changes seriously. He urged for strict adherence to the Kyoto protocol on climate change, adding that drainages in Lagos were overwhelmed.
He called on residents to clear their drainages.
Sen. Uche Chukwumerije (PDP, Abia) said a disaster of such magnitude was the responsibility of the federal government.
For Sen. Smart Adeyemi (PDP, Kogi) the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is not in any position to deal with the issues of this magnitude because the agency does not have adequate equipment to tackle them.
“The issue of NEMA should concern us. NEMA should be empowered to meet the challenges ahead of us.”
He lamented that enough has not been provided by the state to deal with these problems as such the masses suffer when natural disasters happen.
“It is not enough to talk about the problem.
We need to look at the live of the people.
People live in squalor. We have to look at it beyond the theories but at the life of the average Nigerians who are victims of the problem.”