The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described as inefficient and ineffective the operations of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other Lagos State Government first responders over their “abysmal failure to respond to the distress calls of the school children trapped in the suspected petroleum pipeline explosions in Lagos” which may have led to the undetermined number of human casualties.

HURIWA recommended that the Lagos State Government should set up a judicial probe panel on the disaster and many others so as to find lasting solutions to the avoidable disasters.

It noted that when the Abule Ado petrol pipeline explosion in Lagos happened, it took the relevant public-funded first responders several hours to respond to the raging fires which shows that institutions such as the Lagos State Fire Service, NEMA and the Lagos State Emergency Management agency are in need of comprehensive overhauls in order to bring them in speed with the 21st century demands of urgency, efficiency and effectiveness.

These, the rights group observed, are the central attributes of first responders in the event of either natural or man-made disasters.

“From available documentary evidence, it is clear that but for the swift efforts of ordinary Nigerians made up of mostly young Nigerian boys who rescued most of the students of the Bethlehem Catholic Boarding School, the number of casualties would have been multiplied.

“There are clear enough evidence to show that for many hours the fires raged and the victims were left to their own device if not for the humanitarianism of those brave Lagos youths who actively coordinated effective rescue operations through unorthodox means with no facilities.

“The Federal Government must do something radical and fundamental to salvage NEMA from its current deteriorated standards.

“On the part of the Lagos State Government we are shocked that these kinds of disasters keep repeating themselves intermittently with the attendant high tolls of casualties and the state administration has not bothered to put in place effective strategies to curb these occurrences.

“The Lagos State Government must be blamed for allowing the development of factories and residential buildings such as boarding schools to be located within short distances from such explosive facilities like the NNPC pipelines.

“The Lagos State administration should be blamed squarely for letting such accidentsto be choreographed and orchestrated through the Lagos State government's lack of urban development planning strategies and due to corruption by the Housing development departments of the state government.”

HURIWA also condemned the NEMA for failing in its mandate and for rushing to the media to claim that the explosion was not caused by a disruption of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation oil pipeline.

It carpeted the acting Coordinator, Lagos Territorial Office of NEMA, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, for making “senseless and irrational clarification” in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos in which he said contrary to information earlier put out on social media, the explosion which occurred about 9 a.m. was unconnected to pipeline vandalism.

“Why should NEMA official speak from the background of hearsay and rumours? Did they carry out forensic investigations to ascertain the real cause of the explosions which as we understand consumed many innocent school children? Is there no longer logic and scientific research methods in that government-funded office to such a ridiculous extent that the official could grant media interview to give his opinion on the cause of a disaster that is yet to be scientifically investigated? This professional rascalism in the administration of public offices in Nigeria must stop.”

HURIWA lamented that in less than five years, the current administration under President Muhammadu Buhari has completely destroyed NEMA and has rendered the agency inefficient so much so that the agency is no longer working the way it used to do some few years back when it was highly efficient and effectively responsive to distress calls in moments of emergencies all over Nigeria.

“Now NEMA has become an empty talking drum and a shell of its former self to an extent that a huge fire broke out in Lagos and ordinary Nigerians were there at the scenes of this emergency and were doing the jobs of NEMA and Federal and Lagos State Fire Service and for at least the next one hour there was no official first responders in place. This is a national scandal.

“NEMA needs to be overhauled and made to begin to work as it used to be before the hierarchy of that agency was politically hijacked by non-professionals who see it like a cash cow. The Federal Government must act now to stem the deterioration of the national capacity to respond to emergencies.”