'LAGOSIANS WARNED TO TAKE HEAVY RAINFALL FORECAST SERIOUSLY'

By OLASUNKANMI AKONI
IKEJA - Lagos State Government, weekend, warned residents not to ignore the forecast that the state will witness 236  days of intensive rain this year, but to play their complementary part to reduce incidence of calamity in the state.

Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello and that of Information and Strategy, Mr. Aderemi Ibirogba, stated this after monitoring the monthly environmental sanitation at Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area, weekend.

They said the figure was  not a product of imagination by the government, but based on prediction by Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NIMET, on climate change and its effect.

Bello said the figure was a cumulative of rainfall that had occurred between January and March as well as expected rain in April and till the end of the year.

'Lagosians better believe it, dismissing the report will be to their detriment. It is their right not to believe, but when it comes, it will meet them as usual.'

NIMET gave us the figures, we did not manufacture the figures, go on the internet, it is there also. It is for us to be cautious and take preventive measures to avert it,' Bello warned.

Ibirogba on his part said, dismissing the report on the presumption that such was a figment of the imagination of weather forecasts would not do the citizens any good, adding that it was pertinent to heed the warning, to avert a repeat of the July 2011 flood, which took most residents by surprise.

'It is unfair for anyone to refute the report based on their consultation of traditional leanings or belief. We have no capacity to stop the rain, we can only prepare for it,' Ibirogba said.