…as Agency promotes 157 personnel
By Matthew Denis and Rachel Olaleye
The Controller General of Federal Fire Service, Dr. Liman Ibrahim Alhaji has stated that a total of 147 lives and properties worth N32.12billion were lost in the 2020 year.
The Controller made the disclosure during a decoration event organized for the newly promoted 157 officers and men for the 2020/2021 year held at the fire headquarters, Abuja on Wednesday.
Breaking the figure down the Controller said “in 2020 the service attended to 3,555 fire calls and 353 rescue emergencies which 1,100 lives were saved and 147 lives were lost. Estimated property saved is N1.351trillion and an estimated property lost is N32.12billion.
Speaking on the promotion he said, “A total number of 157 staff were recently promoted in the 2020/21 promotion excercise. This promotion has given top management boost as we have 4 Deputy Controller Generals (DCGs), 14 Assistant Controller Generals (ACGs).
According to him, others are 9 Controllers, 11 Deputy Controllers and 26 Assistant Controllers as the elevation is targeted at strengthening the service.
Dr. Liman noted some of the achievements under his watch include the growth of personnel of the service to over 6,000 with presence in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT owing to a budgetary boost in recent years.
He said, “50 personnel have been trained on Medical Emergency Preparedness, Instructors (50) and Investigators (30) have be trained locally. 21 officers have just returned from training in Belarus in different Fields and 10 officers are ready to travel to Dubai for training on hydraulic platform while 15 are going for international Disaster Management course in the UK.
“Today we have training school in each geopolitical zone as the National Fire Academy in Abuja being the Apex training institution and an annex in Lagos. We are constructing seven metropolitan fire stations in all the geopolitical zones and Abuja. We also have established eight National Fire Data Respository Centres across the zones.”
The Controller stressed that in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak the agency is in partnership with the federal Ministry of Environment engaged in the decontamination of the environment as the spread of the pandemic.
He maintained that some of their challenges include finding in terms of capacity building, completion of ongoing projects and provision of chemicals and ancillary equipment, ICT gadgets and infrastructures.
He noted that in a bid to provide safety and security of the personnel at emergency fire scenes, the agency is proposing an arms bearing unit (fire police) to chase away miscreants with ulterior motives.