by Nuye Aaron
The Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has said following the fire that gutted a section of the Podium Block in the State Secretariat Complex yesterday, the time has become due to commence the earlier planned renovation of the entire complex.
Disclosing this to newsmen earlier today when he carried out an on-the-spot assessment of the site of the fire incident, the Governor thankes God that rhe incident did not claim any life.
“I came here this morning to see for myself what happened yesterday. It is really unfortunate, but we give God all the glory that no life was lost and the damage was just on a section”, he said.
He continued to that “It is like the Secretariat has a creche that takes care of babies, so I think it is that section that was affected by the fire.
In the face of this, the Governor, who was surrounded by a crowd of civil servants during the assessment tour, noted thw significance of the incident.
According to him, “there is one thing very important now: we have been talking about the renovation, refurbishing of our very foremost Secretariat, and I believe with this particular incident, there won’t be any reason not to continue it any more .
“Whatever is required by this government to commence that process we would immediately swing into action.”
He acknowledged the wisdom of his administration in establishing a fully equipped and functional fire service, noting that the destruction from the fire would have been more disastrous but for the existence of the equipped Fire Service, which promptly responded to calls, with the assistance of other sister fire fighting organisations in the State.
Rhe Governor also lauded Civil Servants for their heroic actions that prevented the fire from escalating to other sections of the building.
“I want to thank the Civil Servants for their support. You see, when Government makes investment, people don’t understand what they are doing.
“Before the emergency rule, we took our time to invest in fire service. I wonder what would have happened, if we didn’t have a formidable and a functional fire service.
“So we would continue to do those things that we know will continue to lift Rivers people and make Rivers people happy.”
It will be eecalled that fire fire engulfed a section of the Podium Block in the State Secretariat on Monday.
According to the State Head of Service, Dr. Inyingi Brown, who addressed the media shortly after the fire qas out out, an electrical fault was responsible for the incident.
