From Olanrewaju Lawal Birnin Kebbi
The Kebbi State Government has said that has refurbished five moribund fire service vehicles at the rate of N50 million.
The Commissioner for Works, Alhaji Abdullahi Faruq-Muslim disclosed this while handing-over the refurbished vehicles to the State Fire Service in Birnin Kebbi.
He observed that fire fighting vehicle had remained one of the greatest challenges of the ministry as well as the State Fire Service, because all the state fire fighting vehicles had remained non-functional and unattended to for many years.
Muslim said presently out of the five vehicles lined-up for repairs, three were now fully functional ready to serve the people of Kebbi, advising that people must be happy that they now have a performing governor.
He recalled that right from the onset, the state governor mandated all the commissioners under his administration to scout for people oriented projects in their respective ministries and report back to him.
“And this is one of the things we inherited from previous administration that fire fighting has been a problem to the ministry of works and the fire service department, because there were no serviceable vehicles,” he said.
Faruq-Muslim said they put forward a memo of ten grounded vehicles to b repaired but approval was given for five for the mean time.
In his speech, Alhaji Yakubu Ahmed-BK, Commissioner for Information said it had always became a norm for them to celebrate the actions of an indefatigable, responsive and responsible governor.
“This is because, we are coming from a past, that was reflected with lack of performance. We go straight into an era where you have Kebbi most active governor in history. We need not to emphasise, because most people are aware, they can see with their naked eyes.
“Kebbi has now become one huge hub of construction activities, everywhere you go work is ongoing on one sector or the other,” he said.
Ahmed-BK cited roads construction in Birnin Kebbi and Yauri, reconstruction and modernisation of Birnin Kebbi central motor park and completion of a multi-million Naira state secretariat as few of the present administration’s achievements.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works, Sa’adu Musa-Sakaba recalled that they had been battling with moribund vehicles for the past five years until the recent intervention by the present administration.
He noted with satisfaction that Kebbi was extremely lucky to have a brave and hard working governor like Gov. Nasir Idris, insisting that when the present administration came on board there was no single motorable fire fighting vehicle.
Musa-Sakaba recalled that the story of the repairs started about four years ago when they were invited to Jos for a programme on fire, “where we met with the company and invited them to Kebbi.
“They came down and assessed the vehicles and gave us a quotation for the repairs but the past government couldn’t do the job.
“By then it was only one vehicle that was working, people called it ‘Gobara’ meaning fire outbreak because of the smoke it was producing on the way but now, we give glory to God Almighty
He expressed appreciation to the present administration for considering and addressing the plight of generality because the services of the vehicles had no boundary.
The Permament – Secretary said each of the refurbished vehicles now cost nothing less than N280 million.
“But we presented a token sum of N50 million for the repairs of five vehicles, the working Governor, Comrade Dr Nasir Idris quickly approved it.
“The company has been working on these vehicles for the past three months and this is the result. So, we want to sincerely appreciate His Excellency for the kind gesture,” he noted.