Paper presented by Olubunmi Jegede, Assistant Director, Events and Hospitality Safety on behalf of the Director General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr. Lanre Mojola

I bring you greetings from my Director General has to be away because of exigencies of duty and he sent his apologies

PRESENTATION safety protocol for a crowd-ready Lagos: Ensuring Secure entertainment, hospitality and water front experiences during December and beyond

Introduction

The Lagos State Safety Commission (LSC) oversees and enforces safety standards in the hospitality sector, ensuring that hotels, beach resorts, swimming pools, gaming center, restaurants, bars, lounges, event centres and similar facilities operate safely and in compliance with state safety standards. The Commission conducts routine inspections, issues certificate of compliance to compliant facilities and event safety permits, monitors emergency preparedness, and promotes best practices in event safety, crowd management.

Through these efforts, we help create a safe, secure and well-regulated public space for guests, staff and operators within the hospitality industry.

The Commission has since inception carried out her functions using the 4Es of Safety
a.) Engineering – to minimize risks through physical changes to systems, equipment or the environment
b.) Education – involves training and stakeholders engagement
c. ) Enforcement -to implement safety standard
d.) Evaluation – involves a review of our actions and improving on them
So we keep by the second

TO ensure a safe environment , we have quite a no of strategies that we have employed as a govt entity to ensure we keep a tab on activities within our domain

Registration of Hospitality Facilities

All hospitality establishments operating in Lagos State—such as hotels, restaurants, bars, lounges, nightclubs, shortlets, beach resorts, event centres, and other recreational facilities—are required to register with the Lagos State Safety Commission through its official registration portal: www.lasgsafetyreg.com. that most of them have complied in this regard and want to believe that others will do so after now

Audit Inspection of these facilities is a continuous process to identify hazard and assess risks present within these facilities with recommendations for controls of these hazard. All these is to ensure that guests, employees even contractors stay safe within these facilities

Event Permits for Any Given Location

1. Event Permit Approval
Any event scheduled to take place at any location must obtain an Event Safety Permit from the Lagos State Safety Commission. Visit our website @ www.lasgsafetyreg.com.
This permit ensures that the event venue, capacity, and operational plans meet established safety standards before the event holds

2. Emergency Response Measures
Event organizers are required to have a functional emergency response plan, which includes:
⁃ Presence of trained safety marshals
⁃ Availability of functional ambulance on site and or retainer
⁃ Fire fighting equipment
⁃ Clear emergency exits and evacuation routes

3. Our Crowd ready Strategy

On Events – owners of outdoor or indoor events, large or small – by large, we mean 1000 guests & above/ by small, we mean above 200 and we have the mandate of demonstrating effective crowd management systems to ensure the safety of attendees. This includes:
• Adherence to venue capacity limits
• Presence of adequate safety marshals, security personnel and or Ushers
• Controlled entry and exit points by ensuring these access routes are free of any obstructions
• Use of barriers Measures to prevent stampede, disorderliness, or overcrowding

4.) Adequate safety and directional signs must be available. Signs must be reflective in nature and of approved quality standards
1. Exit routes- no venue must operate single entry, adequate ventilation /or evacuation access must be available
2. Housekeeping- good house-keeping and proper cabling management must be ensured at all times

Further to the detty December arrangement to ensure public safety, the Commission is set to ensure that safety measures are heightened to prevent unwanted occurrences and crowd-related incident and we are leaning into a three‑prangle plan:

1.  Pre‑event safety audits – Running of spot‑checks on venues (clubs, concert stages, pop‑up events) to
• verify fire‑exits, structural integrity of stages, electrical hazards and other hazards within the event venues
• ensure that scanners are in place to keep guns and illicit drugs out.
• The commission is partnering with NDLEA for those inspections  and has already warned club owners of “shutting down” any club that flocks weapons or narcotics going forward

2.  Deployment of “tourism safety marshals” to events – this is a joint effort between the Commission and the Ministry of Tourism as part our stakeholders engagement.

Personnel have been trained on crowd control and life saving techniques like first-aid and CPR application for rapid emergency response.

The trained tourism marshals will also be visibly branded at events
Their functions will include but not limited to
• carry out pre event risk assessment and make recommendations on infractions control
• guide crowds, manage entry points, and respond instantly to emergencies.

3.  Community‑engagement & public alerts –  constantly touching base with facility owners within the sector(information dissemination, training etc)
For club owners,

• the use of social media, radio, and street signage will be employed to remind facility owners of the “no‑drugs/no‑firearms/no‑underage” rules
• as well as a hot‑line for real‑time reporting of accidents/ incidents
• The commission’s earlier meeting with club owners sometime ago stressed the need for clear signages on “no-smoking” and the need to have a designated smoking area(DSA) within the facility and cooperation with security personnel to keep drug dealers at bay  is also key.

For safety at the water front, we all know that drowning in Lagos are a serious concern and I’m here to inform you that some of the beach resorts have been inspected and awareness is constantly on going on drowning prevention- we had one in July and we have mandated all beach owners to have life guards at these beachfronts for safer water front experiences

By combining strict venue enforcement, visible on‑ground marshals, and a loud public‑awareness drive, the commission is set to keep the festivities lively and safe for an enjoyable detty, dettier and dettiest December.

Mr. Lanre Mojola,
Director General,
Lagos State Safety Commission.
November, 27th, 2025.