Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Tuesday decried the increasing rate of disaster in the state, saying it was high time the residents and other stakeholders partnered with the state government to make Lagos a safe haven.

The governor, who stated this at stakeholders’ meeting on public advocacy on prevention, mitigation and rescue of emergency occurrences in Lagos, urged the residents to make use of the facilities provided by the state government to prevent and manage disasters.

He noted that the cosmopolitan nature of Lagos and its imminent challenges necessitated the need for frequent safety awareness campaigns by the government.

Ambode, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello said incidents of disaster could be mitigated if everyone paid attention to safety consciousness.

The governor appealed to the residents to be safety conscious always in order to avoid disaster which often resulted in loss of lives and property.

According to him, there were ways of preventing needless losses of lives and property, arising from preventable disaster, adding that when the unavoidable ones occurred, the extent of damage could be managed if all the stakeholders took proper actions.

Earlier, the commissioner for Special Duties and Inter-governmental Relations, Mr. Seye Oladejo, said the programme which was initiated by the governor was meant to build capacity and create awareness for residents on prevention and mitigation of emergency occurrences in the state

He said, “I wish to observe that Lagos State has a unique feature as it is the economic and commercial nerve centre of the country which makes her vulnerable to emergency and disaster occurrences. These include air crash, boat mishap, traffic accident, collapsed building, fire outbreak, robberies, landslide, epidemic, floods, and tanker accident with accompanying fire amongst others.