FEC Approves N4.6bn For New Fire-fighting Equipment
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved N4.6 billion for the purchase of new fire-fighting equipment to contain fire incidents in the country.
The Minister of Interior, retired Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazau, gave the indication at a joint State House Media briefing with the Aviation Minister, Alhaji Hadi Sirika. Danbazau said there was an appropriation of about N5.2 billion for the purchase in the 2016 budget but the figure dropped after a no objection approval by the Bureau of Public Enterprises. “Today’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the procurement of some fire-fighting equipment.
“The last time equipment were procured was sometime in 1996. “The equipment in the inventory today were those procured between 1985 and 1996, and since then there was no procurement.
“On assumption of duty I went round their stations and I discovered surprisingly the dearth of fire-fighting equipment. “And with the experiences in fire incidences all over the country we discovered that such a situation should no longer hold and therefore we reflected that in the 2016 budget with the aim of equipping the fire service and also improve its capacity.
“This approved procurement is going to go a long way to provide the service with the necessary equipment even though this is just a start.
“We also, hoping that the 2017 budget will avail us with the opportunity to procure more equipment for the Federal Fire Service.’’ Danbazau also said that the ministry was making some effort to improve on the existing facilities at the Fire Training School.
He said that the ministry intended to partner an entity involved in training of fire fighters, particularly in the oil and gas sector, to train the nation’s fire fighters and improve their capacity to carry out their services.
