The Comptroller-General, Federal Fire Service (FFS), Joseph Anebi, on Wednesday inaugurated the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Fire Station in the FCT.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the new fire station was equipped with a 10,000 litre capacity dual purpose water tanker with firefighting capability, firefighting consumables and firefighters to man the station.

The inauguration ceremony took place at the NIS Headquarters in Sauka.

Anebi in his remarks noted that the collaboration between the FFS and NIS had yielded a lot of positive results.

“Today’s event is quite unique as it epitomises the high point of collaboration between the Fire Service and fire sector stakeholders.

“FFS’s collaboration with NIS has yielded a fire post equipped with 10,000 litre capacity dual purpose water tender, 10,000 litre capacity water tanker with firefighting capability, firefighting consumables and a full complement of firefighters to man the stations.

“Let it be known that firefighting is everybody’s business.

“All levels of government, private organisations, traditional and religious institutions and individuals respectively have roles to play in ensuring that fire outbreak and the mitigation of its effect in the event of its occurrence are reduced to the barest minimum,” he said.

The FFS helmsman also expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for his support to the service.

“The president amply demonstrated this role when he approved the budget for procurement of over 40 high calibre modern firefighting vehicles for the FFS in the 2016 budgetary allocation.

“The firefighting trucks you are seeing here today came from the batch of equipment the FFS procured through the 2016 budgetary allocation.

“Also, some of the procured equipment were deployed to the six geo-political zones to complement the State Government’s firefighting efforts.

“It is pertinent to state that provisions were made in 2017 and 2018 budgetary allocations for the procurement of more firefighting trucks,” he said.

He also commended the Minister of Interior, retired Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, saying that his uncommon determination to transform the services had not gone unnoticed.

The NIS Controller-General, Muhammad Babandede, expressed gratitude to the FFS for the gesture, adding that he would ensure that the equipment was well utilised.

“We look forward to greater collaboration with the FFS and assure you that when there is fire outbreak anywhere in Sauka or its environs, we will respond to the situation promptly,” Babandede said. (NAN)

– Sept. 12, 2018 @ 17:45 GMT |