The Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has shared no operational updates since October, even after two major fire outbreaks affected two state institutions within days in January.
After the building of the High Court in Ogoja, Cross River, caught fire on Sunday evening, SEMA should have provided an update on the incident.
The public has yet to receive information from SEMA such as the cause of the fire outbreak, how it occurred and the extent of the damage, including affected properties and lives. As an emergency incident, it is within the purview of SEMA’s responsibility to provide an assessment of a fire disaster.
However, three days after the incident at the court, there is no official communication from the agency.
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It even gets worse because on Tuesday, barely two days after the court fire, Ogoja Central Market caught fire.
“Ogoja Local Government Central Market Ishibori, gutted by Fire; less than two days after the State High Court was in Flames. As at this moment no presence of State fire Service to curtail the inferno,” a post shared by NTA News at 10:24 pm on Tuesday reads.
Just as SEMA provided no formal update either through a post on its official page or to journalists after the court fire incident, the agency has said nothing about the market inferno.
FIJ found that in Cross River, SEMA only had an official Facebook page. The last post made by the agency was in October.
The post, shared on October 18, 2024, was a message in honour of the state governor’s 65th birthday.
A screen recording of the page.
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When compared with the Facebook page of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), its counterpart in Lagos, contact information, such as a phone number or an email address, is missing on the Cross River SEMA page.
LASEMA’s page with contact information.
Cross-River SEMA’s page with no contact information.
FIJ also saw that LASEMA often provides regular detailed reports on fire outbreaks in the state through its page, with the most recent incident recorded on December 21, 2024.
However, the situation is different for Cross River SEMA, where the last update on fire outbreaks in the state was posted in April 2024.
What a report on fire outbreak looks like on LASEMA’s page.
Continuation of what a report on fire outbreak looks like on LASEMA’s page.
Cross River SEMA’s fire disaster report on April 16, 2024.
FIJ was unavailable to establish contact with Cross River SEMA at press time.
The post SEMA Silent Since October as Fire Razes 2 Cross River Institutions Within Days appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.