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In February 2024, Kayode Oluwasegun, a resident of Agbara in Ogun State almost lost all his properties to a raging inferno that engulfed his apartment. Thankfully, a private company with an active fire service department came to his rescue.
Months earlier on November 10, 2023, another fire outbreak could have claimed the property of another family at Katsina Close, Agbara Estate. But, as usual, the same company came to their aid.
Many fire incidents have happened at residential areas, worship centres, and even companies in the Agbara and Igbesa areas of the state over the past year. Each time, Nestle, an FMCG company, swiftly responded to save lives and properties.
“Since 2018, Nestle has been supporting the community with firefighting whenever there is a fire outbreak,” Victoria Uwadoka, the company’s Corporate Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainability Lead told Pulse Nigeria.
Ahead of the 2023 general election, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, amid campaign jamborees, hurriedly commissioned a fire service station to serve the Agbara, Lusada, and Igbesa areas of the state..
The facility, commissioned on February 1, 2023, is one of the four fire service stations the state government built and situated at Ifo, Mowe, Isheri, and Agbara.
At the inauguration ceremony, Governor Abiodun said the station was part of his “people-oriented projects” in the Ado-Odo Otta Local Government Area.
He acknowledged that the facility was specifically needed in Agbara and Ifo because of their “population and location as one of the border communities to Lagos.”
A project built on an empty promise
10 months earlier, Governor Abiodun had taken to Twitter to lament the absence of a fire service station in Agbara, an industrial hub in the state.
In his tweet, the governor promised to construct an ‘ultra-modern fire station’ with a new fire truck, an ambulance, and other equipment.
“It is quite unfortunate that the 19km Atan-Lusada-Agbara road does not have a fire station despite being the industrial hub of Nigeria. To this effect, we are constructing an ultra-modern fire station with a new fire truck and ambulance among other fire-fighting equipment,” he tweeted.
Over two years after promising an ‘ultra-modern’ firefighting facility in the area, nothing has changed in Agbara.
The commissioning of the facility was short of expectations as the project built to serve residents of Agbara, Igbesa, and adjoining settlements, was inaugurated with only one fire truck without the promised ambulance.
18 months after the commissioning of the project, Pulse Nigeria visited the facility originally meant to complement the construction of the Agbara-Atan road and facilitate emergency response when the road is completed.
While the 19-kilometre road which has been under construction since 2021 is yet to be completed, the facility built to complement the road appears abandoned.
Painted with the state’s yellow and green colour, but covered with dust emanating from the terrible condition of the road, the fire station building remains under lock and key 18 months after it was commissioned. Weeds have taken over its outer premises.
Two officials of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) who spoke to this writer confirmed that the facility has not commenced operation since its inauguration in February 2023.
The officials, who were found sitting in the open space to be used as a parking space for the firefighting vehicle, said the building is to be shared between them and firefighting officials, who have not yet resumed operations.
The TRACE officials also said since they’ve been reporting to the fire service station as their office, they have never seen a fire fighting truck on the premises let alone an ambulance.
Why the fire station is desolate and inoperative — Commissioner
When this writer called the state Commissioner for Special Duties and Government Affairs, Olufunmilayo Efuwape about why the station is yet to commence operations, she asked me to direct the question to Fatai Adefala, the state’s Director of Fire Service.
But she noted that the state government just employed firefighters who would work at the station — even though the government recruited 150 personnel into the state fire service in 2022.
“There cannot be anybody working there when we just employed people to work there and they are still under training,” she said.
When asked about the whereabouts of the truck commissioned with the station, Efuwape ended the call.
Adefala, the state’s Director of Fire Service refused to volunteer any information when reached for comments.
“I cannot give you that (information) unless you go through our information officer,” he said.
Residents appeal to Governor Abiodun
Speaking to Pulse about the desolate fire station, a resident of Igbesa, Odunsi Saheed, expressed disappointment that a community with an exploding population and so many companies lack an essential facility like a fire service station.
“Erecting a building is one thing, commissioning it is another, but what’s more important is for the service to commence operation. We were promised a truck, an ambulance, and other equipment to make it (fire service) fruitful, but we have yet to see anything.
“In this particular community, we have many companies. Anything can happen. We witnessed one about months ago at the Free Trade Zone where there was a fire outbreak. We looked here and there to ensure the problem was solved. In the end, alternative means had to be used. Since then, we have been sending reminders to the government to ensure they come to our aid,” he said.
Odunsi said the government’s abandonment of the project amounts to toying with people’s lives and properties.
“There are several things including lives and properties that are being toyed with if such commissioning was done and there is no equipment to commence operation. We are only pleading with the government to come to our aid,” he pleaded.
Another resident, Tunde Badmus, described the situation as absurd, noting that Igbesa residents have been talking to the state government through government officials in the area to no avail.
“The government abandoning the fire station since it was commissioned is absurd because we have been reaching out on it as well on some platforms where we have some government officials. It is very bad that after commissioning the fire station 18 months ago, with a fire truck, we found out that after some days the truck was taken away,” Badmus said.
He wondered how a town with so many multinational companies that generate revenues for the state government would not have a fire service station.
“In Igbesa alone, inside the Free Trade Zone, we have close to 80 companies. These are big companies that generate so much revenue for the government. How would they feel when there’s a fire incident and they have to call Otta (station) for a fire truck to come to their aid?” he queried.
While stressing that several fire incidents had already been recorded in Igbesa this year, Badmus appealed to the state government to equip the fire station and open it for operation to forestall losses to fire incidents in communities under Igbesa and Agbara residential and industrial areas.