Leke Baiyewu with Agency reports
The 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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