A’ Ibom fire service decries lack of firefighting equipment

Isaac Job, Uyo

Akwa Ibom State Director Fire Service, Mr. Ubong Umoh has lamented that with only 200 staff strength and one operational fire truck, it was handicapped to attend to fire outbreak in the state.

Speaking to our correspondent in Uyo yesterday, Mr. Umoh said in the event of any serious fire outbreak in Uyo, the parastatal cannot effectively and efficiently tackle the incident because of shortage of staff, low staff morale, lack of funds and equipment.

He explained that for over two years, the fire service has not received the approved budgetary allocation from government and had to source for funds to keep the office running.

He noted that its manpower cannot tackle fire outbreak effectively in Uyo, and that they do not even respond to fire emergencies outside the state capital as his men fight fire without the necessary equipment and only rely on God to protect them in the course of their duty.

He lamented that efforts to make the supervising ministry of works support the parastatal has failed, adding that as a director, he has no official vehicle, whereas, the agency is entitled to at least two vehicles for its operations.

He said though staff salaries are being paid as due, the parastatal has not received any support from the government of Mr. Udom Emmanuel, which is almost completing its first tenure in office.

“Everything in this place is down, if not that I am proactive and the zeal I have for the job, this place would have totally collapsed. Everything is lacking here and because of that, staff morale is very poor.

“Our hazard allowance is N50, and that cannot even buy paracetamol. About two staff members have been maimed (one fell down from the fire truck and the other was affected by the heat of the fire) in the course of working since I can on board last year as the director, and they have not been properly treated.

“I have written series of letters for the upgrade of this place, all to no avail. I have evidences to that effect in a file here in case of any eventuality; any memo that I send out, I have a copy here. Our equipment are outdated. If we have a serious fire incidence, like fire outbreak in a petrol station, we cannot handle it.

“We want the government to provide us equipment, improve staff welfare, recruit more staff and carry out staff training within the country and overseas. There is a yearly provision in the budget for these things but since I assumed office last year, I have received zero allocation for these things,” he stated.

Journalist bags Lagos lawmaker’s PhD scholarship Award

Patrick Okohue, Lagos

A journalist with Blueprint Newspaper Limited, Mr. Temitope Musowo has won a PhD scholarship award instituted by Honourable Olusola Hakeem Sokunle, a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, representing Oshodi-Isolo constituency 1.

Musowo emerged the overall winner of the award with highest score in all criteria set by the award panel and final screening exercise yesterday.

According to the chairman of the award panel, Mr. Alademomi Odunayo, the criteria for the award includes; academic excellence, community development and volunteer programmes, research experience.

Odunayo explained further that Musowo lead other applicants in all the criteria to emerge winner.

Honourable Sokunle, who presented the award to the journalist in his office at the Lagos State House of Assembly complex on Tuesday, maintained that he believed the judgement of the panel was unbiased and thorough.

Speaking with journalists in his office after the presentation, the Lagos lawmaker said” I believe in the judgement of the panel because of the calibre of people who made up the panel, these are men and women of integrity who could not afford to play pranks with such important selection process”

Sokunle speaking further said” the scholarship award is going to cover the awardee’s cost of tuition, other fees and living expenses throughout the duration of the PhD programme”

The Lawmaker added that the award was in furtherance of his philanthropic activities and continued demonstration of his passion for education

“Of course, most of you have been to my constituency office several times to report the graduation ceremony of students that went through our free computer training programmes , and also the free distribution of General Certificate Examination (GCE)  and UTME forms for indigent students seeking admission into higher institutions,  which I do annually, so, I decided to step it up this year with a PhD scholarship award for one outstanding student,” Sokunle said .

Also speaking with journalists, the awardee, Mr Musowo expressed gratitude to the lawmaker for supporting his dream of becoming a PhD holder someday.

“After I completed my MSc programme last year with a PhD grade, my dream is to proceed for a PhD abroad, but funding a PhD programme in a foreign University become a source of concern to me, however, with this award, I can see my dream coming through”.

“Now I know academic excellence has its rewards, I graduated with second class honour (upper division) in my undergraduate degree, I also graduated with a distinction in my Postgraduate Diploma, as well as a PhD grade with an aggregate of 6.2 in my MSc programme.”

“These outstanding academic records and my community development programmes put me ahead of other candidates who submitted entries for the scholarship, I am indeed grateful to God and Honourable Olusola Hakeem Sokunle for this gesture,” he added.

As the Lagos lawmaker promised to make the PhD scholarship an annual programme and also increase the number of the awardee with time, Temitope promised to support the lawmaker in the future to give more scholarships to deserving students.

Hon. Olusola Hakeem Sokunle presenting the PhD award to the Blueprint Reporter, Mr. Temitope Musowo in His office in Alausa.