The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Interior to investigate how the N2.8 billion appropriated for the Federal Fire Service in the 2011 budget was utilized after a motion moved by Hon. Ayeola Abayomi Abdul-Kabir (APC:Lagos) on the floor of the House on Wednesday 4th July, 2018 berated the poor condition of the Federal Fire Service and its ineptitude to respond to current challenges.
The lawmaker highlighted that the Service which was established to respond to fire disasters under the Fire Service Act, 2004, had been ineffective due to its lack of funding to purchase equipment for the discharge its duties. He further noted the National Assembly’s efforts to rectify the situation by appropriating the sum of N2.8 billion in 2011 to the Federal Fire Service to purchase trucks and equipment and said it was unclear as to why the said money had not been utilized to achieve its objective. He called on the House to exercise its power of oversight to investigate whether the moneys were released and how it was utilized.
Speaking further, he expressed concern that only 15 out of 36 States of the Federation have functioning fire services; exposing citizens of the remaining 21 States to the consequences of an inferno. He recalled that several fire disasters in public places like the Ogbete main market Enugu (which was gutted by fire and destroyed 35 shops in November 2017) as well as the Sabon Gari market, Kano (where 3,800 shops were razed down by fire in 2016) could have been averted if the money was actually released.
Lastly, Hon. Abdul-Kabir disclosed that the National Association of Nigerian Traders had lost about of 5.3 billion to fire disasters in the last 17 years. He expressed concern at the lack of public knowledge on the importance of the Fire Services as oftentimes, motorists fail to give fire trucks the right of way to attend to a fire incident and complained of the indiscriminate erection of structures on streets that obstructed fire trucks from reaching burning buildings.
