GOVERNMENTS of six South-West states have resolved to take action that will mitigate the effect of likely eventuality of earth tremor in the region.
This followed reports of incidences in Saki, Saki West Local Government Area of Oyo State earlier in the year and report by experts on the likelihood of outbreak of earthquake in the region within the next four years.
It will be recalled that a team of Geologists and Seismologists of the Federal Government, through the Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics and Geodesy (CGG), Toro, Bauchi State, led by Dr Adepelumi Adekunle Abraham, in its report tagged “preliminary assessment of earth tremor occurrence in Saki area, Saki West Local Government, Oyo State” predicted a “damaging earthquake by 2020.”
The team’s report stated that “after the Earth Tremor of 2009 in South Western Nigeria that was felt in several towns and villages in Oyo, Osun and Ogun states, a detailed short-term propabilistic earthquake prediction was carried out by our team, our findings indicate the probability of earthquake occurrence in the study area between the year 2009 and 2028 increasing from 2.8 per cent to 91.1 per cent. The result also showed that the probability of three events occurring has the highest likelihood within the predicted years. Also, the Weibull Probability Density Model predicts a damaging earthquake (M≥ 5) before year 2020.”
The height of the team’s report was a proposal to set up a monitoring centre and installation of a monitoring device.
The team reports: “It is concluded that earthquake monitoring device called seismometer should be installed in Saki town for proper and effective monitoring of the likely occurrence of earthquake precursors, foreshocks, main-shocks and after-shocks that may likely occur in the area in the very near future.”
This report, according to sources, did not go down well with the governors of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states, who, the Nigerian Tribune gathered, are not leaving any stone unturned to manage the situation.
Nigerian Tribune source, however, informed that the state governors had indicated their interests to set up an earthquake monitoring team, centre and as well purchase a monitoring device, seismometer worth $7,000 to monitor the situation of things.
“Due to your reporting on Earth-Tremor of Saki, I’m glad to let you know that the government of the Western states (Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Osun and Lagos) have decided to jointly take action that would assist in thorough monitoring and mitigation of earthquakes in Yorubaland,” the source hinted.