Adoyi M. Aba
National Emergency Manage-ment Agency (NEMA) has established two more operations offices in Sokoto and Ado Ekiti states in order to strengthen disaster management.
A statement by the agency’s Press Officer, Manzo Ezekiel, yesterday in Abuja, said it had also re-deployed three directors across various departments.
The statement said the new Sokoto operations office was created from the North-west zone, Kaduna, and would cover Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states, while the Ado Ekiti office was created from the South-west zone, Lagos, and would cover Ekiti, Ondo and Osun states.
“This brings to a total of five operation offices, including those located in Abuja, Gombe and Minna and six zonal offices, which are in Kaduna, Maiduguri, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Jos and Enugu, respectively,” the statement said.
In a related development, the agency has re-deployed the Director of Administration and Supplies Dr Zanna Muhammad, to the Department of Planning Research and Forecasting as its head.
The agency also approved the appointment of Malam Muhammad Shuaibu Tukur as the Acting Director of Administration and Supplies and Malam Alhassan Nuhu as the Acting Director of Disaster Risk Reduction.
Also re-deployed were the South-south zonal coordinator, Mr Emenike Umesi, from Port Harcourt to the Abuja as the Deputy Director, Planning Research and Forecasting, while the South-east zonal coordinator, Dr Onimode Bandele, moved from Enugu to the South-south zone.
The statement further said the new zonal coordinator for the South-east is Mr James Major Eze, with head of the Ado Ekiti operations office beingMr Akiode Saheed Olakunle, while Malam Sa’ad Bello heads the Sokoto office.
It added that the agency’s Director-General, Alhaji Muhammad Sani-Sidi, said the redeployment was with immediate effect and aimed at repositioning it “for greater service delivery.”
He also said the creation of the additional operations offices would “help in stepping down disaster management by bringing NEMA closer to the states and local governments, as well as the other stakeholders at the grassroots.”