Following the onset of the dry season, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, (FCTA), has challenged the FCT Emergency Management Agency, (FEMA), to be proactive in identifying and mapping out disaster prone zones in the Territory for effective and timely response to emergencies.
The Permanent Secretary in the FCTA, Mr Olusade Adesola gave the charge while declaring open a two day capacity building workshop for senior and middle level staff of FEMA in Abuja.
Mr Adesola informed that the dry season in the FCT was often associated with fire outbreaks as was recently recorded at the Kubwa and Nyanya markets.
In a statement which was signed by the head of Public Relations Unit Mrs Nkechi Isa and sent to CAPITAL POST on Wednesday, FEMA was commended for mitigating the impact of heavy flooding against the 2021 NIMET prediction for the FCT, he urged the Agency to intensify its enlightenment campaigns.
“I want to urge you to take up the challenge of enlightening FCT residents on the need to protect themselves and their properties from fire disaster in this dry season”. He said.
He thanked the Ministers of the FCT, Ministry of Budget and National Planning as well as the sponsor of the workshop, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung,(KAS) for facilitating the training programme.
In a chat with journalists on the sidelines of the workshop , the Director General of FEMA, Alhaji Abbas Idriss appealed to FCT residents to be cautious this dry season by equipping their homes and businesses places with fire extinguishers and to call the toll free 112 number during an emergency.
Earlier, in a welcome remark , the Resident Representative of KAS, Mr Vladimir Kreck explained that the non governmental organization, which has offices in 78 countries around the world, was committed to training and educating professionals.
The workshop exposed the participants to various topics , including succession and mentoring management, planning and organising work of emergency agencies and overlapping mandates and rivalry among security agencies and first responders, among other issues .
Meanwhile, the Director General of FEMA, Alhaji Abbas Idriss directed
all departments to submit to his office their action plans based on the learning outcomes
from the workshop by next week Wednesday for review and implementation.
He also directed the Human resources Department to include the modules in the Agency’s training schedule in order to impact staff who did not attend the workshop.
