Odumosu has not apologised to me – NEMA spokesman JULY 13, 2013 BY ENIOLA AKINKUOTU 1 COMMENT Spokesperson, National Emergency Management Agency, South-West Zone, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye Spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency, South-West Zone, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, was arrested by the Commander, Rapid Response Squad, Akeem Odumosu, during a rescue operation exercise in Ebute Meta, Lagos on Thursday. In this interview with ENIOLA AKINKUOTU, he explains the circumstances leading to his detention What were you doing at the scene of a collapsed building on Thursday? We received the alert around 2.35am and we were there 20 minutes later. On getting to the site, we met policemen. We told them to cordon off the place and they obliged. We were working with the state fire service until 9am before officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency came. Before then, around 4am, a House of Representatives member was with us. We told him our challenges. We told him we needed a crew and some other things. We tried the telephone numbers of many commissioners in the state, LASEMA, the Lagos State emergency number, etc. None of them picked our call. All along, we were doing what we could, rescue operations were going on and we mobilised the residents. We used our equipment to do some manual work. The House of Rep member then said he was leaving. He told us he was going to send a text message to the governor. We continued our work. When did other state agencies arrive? Around 9am, that was when LASEMA arrived. We told them we had been trying to get them and that we needed a crew. They said their crew would arrive. I then told my staff to find a way with them (LASEMA) to get a crane to the site. After 30 minutes that they left, they still weren’t back. When they finally came, my staff told me that there was no crew around here. So, we continued working manually. By that time, the Lagos State Building Control Agency had brought additional equipment -cutters and spreaders. It facilitated our work. It was then we were able to bring out the two children. The last three were rescued after LASBCA came to assist us. We now got to the stage of receiving credentials of property and calling the relatives of the victims to take their things. We had stability, we had everything. As the crane came in, we didn’t allow it to go where the victims had important credentials or property. Everything was going well until Odumosu came. Anybody he saw that wasn’t in uniform, he would start beating them. I had to approach him. What did you say to Odumosu when you approached him? I told him that the people were undergoing trauma. I wanted to tell him that it was a humanitarian principle to treat people in trauma decently so that the trauma would not be compounded. Before I could even say anything, he shouted at me and I just kept quiet. I didn’t take note of a commissioner beside me, when Odumosu moved to my back and started shouting at me. He said he was an assistant commissioner of police and that he had the right to arrest me. I asked him what kind of stupid statement he was making. I told him he could see we were both working, so what would be the basis of me being arrested? That was all. He asked his men to take me away. They then took me to Denton Police Station. On getting there, the Divisional Police Officer and others were surprised to see me. They even asked me why I was brought there. What did Odumosu say was your offence? Later, when he came, he started telling people that I harassed him and I called him a ‘stupid’ man. Some of my colleagues, who I invited, said even if I called him that, he should have understood that I was under pressure. He then said he was under pressure too. He said some commissioners called him that there was chaos at the site and that he did not know anything when they called him; and that was why when he got there, he asked everybody to leave. I told him that when he came, he should have asked people he met on ground what the situation was. He in turn described the incident as one of the hazards of the job. How long were you detained? I was detained only for a short while and released. The headquarters in Abuja had contacted the Police Force Headquarters. Is this the first time NEMA officials would be arrested by state organs in Lagos? This sort of thing has happened to about three NEMA personnel in Lagos. Even during the fire outbreak in Jankara Market, Lagos Island, last December, LASEMA threatened to pull us out anywhere they met us. They said they would make sure we were not allowed into rescue sites. They forget that we cannot achieve anything in isolation. Did Odumosu later apologise to you? No, he did not. He maintained that he did the right thing by arresting me. Rescue operation is our mandate in every state. Even during the Arepo Pipeline explosion in January, we were the ones in charge and the Inspector General of Police Taskforce on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism cooperated with us and obliged our demands. Also, in Maiduguri, we were the ones, alongside Nigerian Army personnel, that coordinated rescue efforts during Boko Haram crisis. I don’t know why Lagos must be different.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 08:20:01 +0000
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