THE FEDERAL government has empowered fire extinguishing vendors with necessary equipment after a sensitisation campaign across the 23 local government areas of Benue State on the use and servicing of fire extinguishers.

Speaking Thursday during the closing ceremony of the training in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, which featured certificate and equipment presentation to the trainees, Special Adviser to the Governor on Internal Security, Chief Joseph Har, urged them to support Governor Alia to do more for the state.

“You people need to lift His Excellency’s hands up. Maybe you don’t know that’s what you are doing. In the Bible, you know of the man his supporters raised his hands when they were fighting. When Moses was fighting and he needed to put his hands up for the sun to be still, Aaron held his hands so that he would not be weak because once his hands were down, the war was going against them.

“You are the first people in this aspect to hold his Excellency’s hands for the sun to be still and I commend you for accepting to be here”, Har said.

He also commended the Director General, Bureau of Entrepreneurship and Wealth Creation, Benita Shuluwa, for the initiative and urged the trainees to go back and be good ambassadors of the state and the country at large.

On her part, Benita Shuluwa, the Director General (DG), Bureau of Entrepreneurship and Wealth Creation, who congratulated the trainees on their successful completion of the exercise assured them of continuous support to succeed, saying relevant offices were open 24hours for them to to access for assistance.

“For every start, there is always a stepping stone into something bigger and to do well in little things, the Bible says you get bigger things. So, it starts here. If you go back and you do well in sensitizing the people in your various local governments, it will take you to greater things and you will be good ambassadors. It’s a starting point in the right direction”, Shuluwa encouraged.

She said the vendors should start their job of sensitizing people in their local governments on the use of fire extinguishers as soon as they go back to their various places

“As you are going, you are starting. No time to waste”, she charged

In his address, Mr Charles Adzo who is the State liaison consultant on Nigeria Fire Extinguisher Controll Program

while presenting the fire extinguishing vendors said, the program was the first of its kind in Nigeria and thanked Governor Alia for being proactive and for supporting the project.

On how the beneficiaries were selected, Adzo said local government chairmen across the state made the choices.

According to him, the trainees are now fire extinguishing vendors duly recognized by the federal ministry of interior and the Benue State government and should not be intimidated.

“Nobody will come to service extinguishers in your union who will not be a member of your union. Every fire extinguishing person in Benue must be a member of this program”, he maintained.

In separate remarks, State Director of Fire Service, Engr Donald Ikyaaza, and a retired Director of Fire Service, Apine Lawrence, who was one of the trainers, tasked the trainees to continue to practise what they were thought, saying the training and retaining would be sustained.

Responding, one of the trainees, Iveren Atsegha, from Katsina-Ala local government said she will be committed to servicing fire extinguishers to ensure that those containing explosive substances rather than fire extinguishing substance will be fished out. According to her, some substances are used for explosion but illicitly kept in fire extinguishers hence the need for sanctity.

“I will ensure that any extinguisher coming into the state that has to be serviced through me, I’m going to ensure that is safe for use anywhere.

“First of all, your fire extinguisher is brought to you, you have to dismantle it and see what substance is inside or other substances that are inside for explosion”, Atsegha said.

the reporters had reported on January 13 that the Benue State Government was to employ over ten (10) thousand youths for the distribution of fire extinguishers and enforcement of its usage in homes and public places across the state.