Ekiti State All Progressives Congress has blamed the state Governor Ayodele Fayose for failure to quench the tanker fire at a petrol station in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, last Monday, where several houses were also burnt in the inferno.
The party, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Hon. Taiwo Olatunbosun, while describing Fayose as a pretender, explained that carrying a bucket of water to join in putting out the fire was a height of hypocrisy and pretence, after the governor deliberately created conditions that rendered the state Fire Service ineffective.
A fire had raged at a fuel station in Ado-Ekiti last Monday, and spread to neighbouring buildings, after a spill from a fuel tanker caught fire, leaving residents groaning as passersby watched the petrol station and nearby houses in flames.
Governor Fayose was sighted 30 minutes later, holding a bucket of water, trying to join in quenching the fire.
Berating the governor, Olatunbosun, regretted that he turned the sad incident into a comic show by shouting and rolling up his sleeves trying to quench the fire with a bucket of water “in apparent showmanship in his usual way of deceiving the public that he is a man of the people.”
While accusing Fayose of destroying the system that would have prevented the sad incident, APC said, “Governor Fayose is an unconscionable pretender by trying to quench a raging inferno with a bucket of water, after rendering the state Fire Services prostrate. This is at best showmanship, which Fayose is best known for. Fayose should be ashamed of his conduct as he is telling the outside world that Ekiti is so backward, such that it is bucket of water that is used to quench a raging inferno rather than modern firefighting equipment.
“It is the height of irresponsibility and sheer pretence for Fayose to turn himself to an emergency fire fighter, with a bucket of water, after he sacked trained fire fighters and paramedics recruited to fight fire incidents by his predecessor, former Governor Kayode Fayemi, while he also abandoned the modern firefighting equipment purchased by the last APC administration.”
Olatunbosun averred that Fayemi recruited firemen and paramedics numbering about 122 for fire prevention and care of accident and fire victims.
He added, “These men were trained twice within seven months by firefighting experts from America and Israel in modern techniques of combating fire incidents, while the administration also bought well-equipped water tankers and fire trucks and distributed them across the state in towns, such as Ado Ekiti, Omuo, Ikole, Ijero, Aramoko and Ikere.
“Fayemi also bought well-equipped ambulances to give first aid to fire victims, while arrangement was made with the local governments to operationalise the system in their localities to ensure prevention of fire and combating fire incidents across the state.”
He however said that on assumption of office, in his usual policy of vendetta, Fayose did not only sack the trained fire fighters and paramedics, but also abandoned all the equipment in his usual style of rubbishing or abandoning his predecessors’ projects.
Arguing that there were no losses through fire incidents during Fayemi’s administration, APC said Fayose had turned Ekiti State to “an enclave of anguish,” by refusing to pay workers’ salaries, imposition of unbearable taxes on petty traders and school children, while also cancelling Fayemi’s social security scheme for the elderly, but later re-introduced the same programme “as a compensation for PDP loyalists who are beneficiaries.”
Olatunbosun described Fayose’s announcement to establish fire stations across the state as unnecessary, waste of resources and “an attempt to cheat the state as usual,” insisting that if the governor had not abandoned what his predecessor had on ground, the sad incident would have been averted.
“We urge Fayose to recall the trained paramedics and firefighters he sacked and also pay attention to the firefighting trucks and equipment bought by his predecessor,” he concluded.
