By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
Authorities of the Federal Fire Service (FFS) have raised the alarm that most public buildings across the country, and especially in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), were not safe for workers as a result of non-compliance with fire requirements.
The agency, however, warned that if the occupants of the said buildings failed to install the fire-fighting requirements they would be forced to close them down.
Addressing a press conference at the agency’s headquarters yesterday in Abuja, the FFS Controller-General, Engr. Joseph Garba Anebi, said the establishment had stepped up its operations “because of new and refurbished equipment newly acquired.”
He said: “So many government structures here need to be sanctioned because the lives of people working there are not safe. Some of these public buildings that have been found wanting should do the needful to avoid been sanctioned very soon because we have met with the occupants of these buildings.”
Anebi said if the agency was to carry out its responsibility, as expected, most public buildings would have been closed down.
He, however, called on well-to-do Nigerians to assist the agency in provision of fire-fighting equipment, saying “people have been donating vehicles to Police and Road Safety, but nobody has ever donated anything to FFS.”
