By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
Minister of Interior, Abdulrauf Aregbesola has decorated the new Controller General of the Federal Fire Service (FFS) Abdulganiyu O. Jaji.
Speaking while decorating the service number one officer on Thursday in Abuja, Aregbesola charged him to improve on the achievements of the predecessors.
He said that the new fire boss is coming to preside over a service that has been revamped from a moribund institution to a first class disaster and emergency management machine.
“When the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration was inaugurated in 2015, the service was only fitfully represented in Abuja and Lagos with two functioning fire engines. But the FFS is represented in all the states of the federation now with state of the art fire fighting and disaster management infrastructure.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has taken special interest in the Ministry of Interior and has supported our agencies, including FFS, enabling us to retool and re-kit, positioning the agencies as foremost institutions. I thank him most sincerely for this.
“As a result of this, the Federal Government provided 106 modern firefighting trucks to the FFS. Last year, the Federal Government also provided N10.4 billion infrastructure upgrade comprising of 44 firefighting engines, 15 water tankers, 15 rapid intervention fire engines and 20 basic life support ambulances.
“Last year, 17 firefighting officers were sent to Belarus for advanced trainer-training course. These officers are the master trainers that are now training other officers on modern firefighting, disaster and emergency management.
Same last year, in March, we commissioned an aerial firefighting equipment designed for skyscrapers in Lagos. It was the first of its kind in Nigeria.”
He said the attention and resources devoted by the Buhari administration into FFS since 2015 is more than whatever has been put into it since its establishment in 1901.
“It is not surprising therefore that last year, the FFS responded to 2,845 SOS distress-calls in which it was able to save 587 lives, rescue 260 persons and save property worth N18.9 trillion.
This is the legacy the new CG will be inheriting and you are required to take it a notch higher.”
On his part, Jaji said he will remain forever indebted to President Muhammadu Buhari for the confidence reposed on me to lead the Service at this crucial time in the history of the Federal Fire Service and the Nation at large.
“I will like to also use this medium to appreciate the Honourable Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola whose passion and vision for the Service is contagious, for giving us such a robust window as a thriving Agency for the remarkable successes achieved so far.
“The Service can confidently look into the future with hopes and re-assurance that with the backing of the Honourable Minister, we shall together bring our collective dreams to reality by making Nigeria a safe haven from fire and other related emergencies.”
