Lawmaker says Nigeria lost N6tn to fire disaster in 5-years

The Nigerian Senate says the country has lost a total of six trillion Naira to fire disasters in the last five years.

The chairman Senate committee on interior, Senator Andy Uba stated this at a fire conference in Abuja on Tuesday, November 7, 2017.

Senator Uba who described the figure as alarming however, noted that fire incidents in rural areas were not recorded.

“Alarming as these numbers are, they could be significantly higher if all the fire incidents in rural areas were recorded by an efficient operational fire statistics database.

“There is a general consensus on the need to mitigate this trend to stopping the fire before they start,” he said.

Uba, who noted that less than two per cent of Nigeria’s population was fire safety literate, called for media partnership on creating awareness on the issue.

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Declaring the two-day event open, the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, said that fire outbreaks were preventable given the necessary equipment and manpower.

The vice-president was represented by the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazzau.

He said that with support from the legislature and backing of the presidency, the Federal Fire Service would be one of the best in the world in the coming years.

“The effort by the National Assembly in the 2016 budget to procure five fire equipment is encouraging. This did not happen in the last 30 years or more.

“We are doing our best to ensure that Nigeria remains safe. There is a correlation between climate change and conflict,” he said.

The President of the Fire Disaster Prevention and Safety Awareness Association of Nigeria, Badanga Lamidi, commended the Senate for its effort in ensuring safety of Nigerians.