As part of resolve to empower its youths through capacity building, the Oyo State government has trained about 300 youths, drawn from across all the local government councils in the state  in disaster management.

Speaking while declaring open the training held at the Social Development Staff Training Centre, Ibadan, recently, the state Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Mr Adedapo Lam-Adesina, said the Governor Abiola Ajimobi-led administration was committed to an all round development of the youths in the state.

The commissioner pointed out that this was why the state government continued to evolve and implement programmes and projects for the empowerment of youths.

Lam-Adesina disclosed that in addition to the training, the 20, 000 jobs for the unemployed youths in the state codenamed “Youths Empowerment Scheme of Oyo” (YES-O), would be launched by the governor in due course.

According to him, the recent flood disaster which ravaged the state motivated the training, geared towards expanding the resilient capacity of young people in the various communities so as to adequately prepare them against future occurrence.

“The expectation of the state government at the end of this training is for participants to go back to their various communities and set up emergency corps marshal team that will respond to emergencies in the communities,” he added.

While urging the participants to continue to support the Ajimobi-led administration in its transformation agenda for the restoration of the lost glory of the state, he assured them of continued support of government in improving their lot.

One of the guest lecturers, Mr Tayo Ayoade, while speaking on issues and challenges in disaster management, stressed the need for concerted efforts in disaster risk reduction as well as the need to report early warning signals, especially in high risk areas.

He counselled that the missing link in disaster reduction mechanism should be supplied by all stakeholders through the establishment of volunteer groups, sensitisation campaign, training and other strategies.