Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of Interior. (Photo : Twitter)
By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Jos – The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, says his ministry will soon initiate the process to repeal the 1963 Fire Service Act.
The Minister stated this at the 11th National Council on Fire held in Jos, Plateau State, noting that sensitive information, national archives and other national assets would be preserved if fire safety is taken seriously.
“The Ministry will initiate the process to repeal the 1963 obsolete Fire Service Act and enactment of a new contemporary, vibrant and enforceable law”, he said.
Represented by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Shuaib Belgore, Aregbesola stated the federal Fire Service would be “sufficiently repositioned to deliver timely and quality service to the nation.”
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He stressed that the protection of the nation’s economy cannot be complete without proper fire service management.
Making reference to incidents of fire disaster at INEC offices, the Minister said “many of these offices may have not suffered the losses experienced if we had a robust fire safety management in place with the required active and passive firefighting gadgets installed.”
Also speaking at the event, Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, represented by his Deputy, Professor Sonni Tyoden added that the theme of the conference, “Fire Safety Management: An imperative for national security” was a well conceived topic, coming at the time the nation is grappling with with security challenges of various proportions.
He lamented that the subject of fire is not given adequate attention in the national discourse even when “fire disasters in the country have caused enormous losses running into billions of Naira and have also taken the lives of many Nigerians.”
Governor Lalong far-reaching decisions should be taken to facilitate the rapid transformation of fire fighting capacity of all tiers of government to ensure drastic reduction in cases of fire disaster.
