The Nigerian Senate has called on the National Emergency Management Agency and other relevant government agencies to take proactive measure...
The Nigerian Senate has called on the National Emergency Management Agency and other relevant government agencies to take proactive measures on the repeated earth tremors in some parts of Kaduna State.
The measures, the Senate said, included educating Nigerians on what to expect and how to react when a tremor occurred.
This is as residents of Kwoi, the affected community, who fled the town following recurrent earth tremors are now returning as normalcy seems to have returned.
While adopting a three-prayer motion sponsored by Senator Danjuma La’ah (APC, Kaduna-South) titled ‘Earth Tremor and the Preparedness of Nigeria to Deal with its Intending Consequences,’ the Senate urged all stakeholders to take the earth tremor being recorded in parts of the country seriously.
The lawmakers also urged NEMA and security agencies to intervene through public enlightenment and drills to be prepared, saying minimal resources would be required at the warning stage.
The Senate mandated its Committee on Environment and Solid Minerals to make a fact-finding tour of the affected communities and report to the chamber.
La’ah, while moving his motion, stated that he was saddened that the tremor had left in its trail a traumatic experience by the inhabitants of Kwoi and its environs.
The senator said the first widely reported occurrence of an earth tremor in Nigeria was in 1933 while others were reported in 1939,1964, 1984, 1990, 1994, 1997, 2000 and 2006.
La’ah added that following the tremor that occurred on September 11, 2009 which was recorded in Oyo State and other parts of the South-West and with the recent ones in Bayelsa and Kaduna states, researchers had warned that the incidences were signs that Nigeria was no longer immune to earthquake.
According to the senator, the Lagos-Ibadan-Ijebu-Ode fault system was another belt where an earth tremor was witnessed in July and August 1984, stressing that these fault systems could serve as a zone of weakness for the propagation of shocks from far away plate boundaries.
La’ah said, “Earthquakes occur at places called faults where jagged edges of two tectonic plates grind against each other and as the tectonic plates move in slow motion, sometimes two grinding plates suddenly jolt into a new position and the energy released by this movement creates an earthquake.
“Areas prone to earthquake in Nigeria include the fault systems (zones), including the NNE-SSW trending fault systems cutting across Ifewara, Zungeru, Anka and Kalangai linking up to the Atlantic Ocean fracture system. It is a zone of concern and the areas at the proximity of these fault systems are at risk of earthquake/tremor.”
Meanwhile, residents of Kwoi who fled the town in the wake of the tremors are now returning.
The Interim Chairman of Jaba Local Government Area of the state, Mr. Ben Kure, where Kwoi is located, made this known on Tuesday in Kafanchan, Kaduna in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria.
He said there had not been any recurrence of tremors since last Tuesday, adding that residents who had earlier fled their homes were gradually returning.
The chairman said although quite a significant number of residents fled for fear of the unknown, normalcy was being restored in Kwoi and its environs.
He said, “As we speak, farmers who found it difficult to go to their farms are now going and business premises are opening, while our pupils have resumed in their various schools.”
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Source: PUNCH
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