From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
The Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) has called on the natives of Saki, Oyo State to stay calm, saying it has sent a team of experts to assess the extent of damage of an earth tremor that rocked the area.
NGSA Director General Dr Abdulrazaq Garba told reporters in Abuja that Saki Local Government Area in Oyo State had experienced an earth tremor on Tuesday.
‘Earth tremor is a natural occurrence which humans don’t have control over. We are currently having earth tremors in Saki as of today,’ Dr Garba stated.
He stated that the agency has only six seismograph monitoring stations across the country that are being used to monitor the occurrence of these earth tremors.
He said that they were able to capture predictive analysis from Ilorin which monitors Saki and surrounding areas.
‘We have put in some equipment to monitor these occurrences.
‘Before the end of the year and early next year, we will have more monitoring stations. We have six seismographs stations in the country.
‘A team has been sent to pacify the community because they were in panic.
‘We need more of these equipment to help manage this occurrence; consistent monitoring of the tremors would help alert and study situations and we need more of these equipment because science, just like statistics requires appropriate equipment to gather predictive analysis which is very useful to us and to researchers,’ he explained.
The DG added that consistent monitoring of tremors would help alert appropriate authorities and help study, mitigate and manage such situations.
He stressed that for quite some time seismic data has not been captured therefore, there is no accurate compilation of appropriate information.
Recently, an earth tremor was recorded in Mpape axis of the Federal Capital Territory of which NGSA had commissioned and put in place equipment to monitor future occurrences.