…Trucks, generators break down, offices, toilet facilities horrible
Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
The Rivers State Fire Service Headquarters at Mile 1, behind Isaac Boro Park, Port Harcourt, is now in a very sorry state.
A visit to the station yesterday, March 28th 2019, revealed a ghetto-like compound that cut the picture of an abandoned, long forgotten and neglected station where nothing seems to be working.
TPCN discovered that almost all the trucks in the station, whose primary function is to save lives, are moribund, having broken down for years with one fault or the other ranging from flat tyres to knocked engines, among others.
A peep at the generator house showed two big sound-proof generators, none of which, unfortunately, is functioning again, despite the fact that the station needs constant electricity.
One of the offices, which TPCN entered, while making enquiry for the station manager, was nothing to write home about.
One of the workers, who refused to disclose his name, told TPCN that only one truck is functioning, apart from a water tender donated to the station by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
He said the situation in the station was so bad that most of the workers had left while many were now surviving through other means.
He said the workers embarked on protest sometime last year because of the poor working condition in the place, yet nothing had improved.
“Some of the workers now drive taxis in order to survive. They are experts in this work but there’s nothing they can do because they have to survive. If you go to the other outstations, the story is the same thing, talking about the ones at Borokiri, Ahoada and Rumuodumaya,” he lamented.
He said it was because of the poor condition of the trucks that they were not able to rescue a recent fire incident before the Nigerian Ports Authority came to save the situation, adding that as soon as their own trucks moved out after getting the emergency call, they broke down on the road.
TPCN gathered that the government is not making any effort to revive the station for some inexplicable reasons.
The workers’ welfare is yet to be improved. For instance, their emergency assurance has remained N100 per day since 1963.
The officer in charge of the station was not around when TPCN visited yesterday. The commissioner for Special Duties, Emeka Onowu, was not around when TPCN also visited his ministry, which oversees the Rivers State Fire Service.
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