The Hon Minister of Interior Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo , Wednesday, commissioned 15 Rapid Response Fire Fighting Vehicles and 6 heavy Fire Fighting Trucks.
The Minister challenged officers and men of the service to roll their sleeves for work, stating that the era of work is now, in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President.
He challenged the authority of the fire service that their operations should go beyond fire fighting, that the service must also forecast for impending fire out break and other disaster.
He stressed that attention must be given to prevention, rather than fire fighting. “Your responsibilities must go beyond fire fighting”, you have to plan and be able to forecast danger to prevent occurrence of disaster.
The Minister stated this at the commissioning of fire fighting vehicles at the headquarters of Federal Fire Service, Abuja.
Dr. Tunji-Ojo also implored the FFS that its fire institute would not only be for personnel training alone, it must integrate training of fire rescuers, who would be deployed to man commercial and public buildings to ensure compliance with fire sefety mechanism.
He said; this is necessary because fire fighting is closely related with development, stating that the country cannot continue to pay lip service to the fight.
The commissioned fire trucks have the ability to navigate through narrow spaces in the market and residential areas.
The Controller General of Federal Fire Service, Engineer Jaji Olola Abdulganiyu in his welcome remarks said the Minister had shifted the paradigm, awakened the determination of the fire men to pursue the vision and reset the goals for expectations and achievements of the service in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration and it’s service delivery policy thrust.
He commended the Minister for his visionary leadership and efforts to modernize the services with the state of arts equipment and data harmonization to raise the bar of internal security and citizenship integrity for Nigerians to have a sweet experience.
In attendance are Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Interior Dr. Oluwatoyin Akinlade, Director General Services Dr. Peter Egbodo and staff from the ministry.