The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Monday commissioned newly received disaster risk reduction equipment for search and rescue operations across the country.
NEMA said the equipment donated by the Japanese Government would enable it to mitigate the impact of disaster in Nigeria.
The equipment is worth N1.8 million (500 million Japanese Yen.)
NEMA’s Director General AVM Muhammadu Muhammed said: “NEMA is inducting comprehensive disaster risk reduction equipment for search and rescue across the federation. Some of these equipment were donated by the Japanese Government. They include nine units of rescue vehicles with rescue equipment, four units of mobile water purifier systems with vehicles.”
He said NEMA workers had been trained on the usage of the specialised vehicles by experts from Toyota Tsusho Corporation of Japan, adding that the agency added value to the specialised equipment by attaching a unit of floodlights for illumination during night operations.
On how the equipment would be deployed, Muhammed said: “One response vehicle and alternative lighting each to NEMA zonal office in the Northwest (Kaduna), Northeast (Maiduguri), Northcentral (Jos), Southwest (Ibadan), Southsouth (Port Harcourt) and Southeast (Enugu).
“Also, each would be stationed at NEMA Territorial Office in Lagos, Kano and at Abuja operations office.
“The mobile water purifier vehicles would be stationed in Abuja for deployment to any part of the country whenever the need arises to assist people in distress with clean drinking water.”
