The National Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has offered to train over 200 staff of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) in accident management.
The NSIB director general, Mr Akin Olateru, made the offer in Lagos at the signing of a partnership agreement with LASEMA on safety and preservation of critical evidence at crash sites in during incidents and accidents involving all modes of transportation.
To ensure seamless partnership, both agencies signed a memorandum of understanding that would further foster their performance.
Olateru said it is important for agencies and organisations to partner in the interest of the country.
Olateru said the NSIB is not the first responder in case of an accident but that “it is necessary for the agency to partner with the first responders like LASEMA, police, the military and other critical organisations.
He explained that the partnership with LASEMA would further aid accuracy of accident investigation and prevent recurrence of such.
He stated that the bureau had in the past six years made attempts to partner with some government agencies to no avail/
Olateru however praised the management of LASEMA for agreeing to the agreement within five months it was first proposed.
The NSIB chief explained that the new NSIB Act 2022 empowers it to investigate serious incidents and accidents in all modes of transportation with the aim of boosting safety.
“We had an initial meeting in March this year, which gave birth to this MoU that we are signing today. We have been pursuing some orgnisations in the last six years and nothing positive has come out of it. Whatever MoU we sign with organisations, it’s for the interest of the nation.
“We are not the first responder in case of an accident; we are investigators. The first responders need to know their roles and we need to know ours, too.
“We are happy to train the staff of agencies. This is necessary for them to know what we do and how we go about them. Evidence needs to be preserved at crash sites. Partnering with an agency like LASEMA is good for our country. Lagos State is the size of four to five in Europe.
“We will be deceiving ourselves when we say there will not be disasters. There will be disasters, but we need to partner for it and we need to reduce the impact of the disasters.”
Olateru also said the technical staff of LASEMA would be trained by the Southern California Safety Institute of the United States of America (USA).
He said the staff would be trained in batches, with the first set going for training before the end of August 2023.
In his remarks, the permanent secretary, LASEMA, Dr. Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, said the agency had signed MoUs with various organisations, including 25 United Nations agencies.
He said the agreement with NSIB was meant to assure Lagos residents that the agency would always respond swiftly to any emergency management.
He explained that the state government had spent billions of naira to equip the agency with the procurement of state-of-the-art ambulance as well as training of qualified personnel to manage disasters.
“We also say that disaster management is the responsibility of everyone. We are signing this MoU with NSIB to take care of the airspace in case of an emergency or disaster.
“When the unfortunate aircraft accident happened earlier in the week, we worked together with the officials of NSIB at the crash site and our effort ensured that there was no mortality in the accident.”
