The Controller-General, Federal Fire Service, Ibrahim Liman, has urged the EndSARS protesters across the country to be civil, peaceful and refrain from attacking fire fighters.
Liman stated this during a press briefing at the Federal Fire Service headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Nigerian youths had embarked on nationwide street protests, calling for an end to police brutality.
The controller-general advised protesters and Nigerians in general to be friendly with firefighters and allow them to carry out their duties of protecting lives and property.
“The kind of fire we are witnessing now because of the protests is different from the normal conventional fire outbreaks.
“In this situation, we will only respond if we are protected by armed men; but if we are not, I don’t think it will be possible for us to respond,” he said.
Liman said that he had ordered all the fire service zonal commanders to ensure that fire service personnel were protected by security operatives, while responding to fire incidents which might be caused by hoodlums during the protests.
“We once had an ugly experience in Osun during a post office fire outbreak, where my men were beaten and vehicles vandalised. We don’t want that to repeat itself.
“We were fighting fire and people were still attacking us. So, we had no option than to abandon the fire and withdrawal to our station,” he said.
He appealed to Nigerians to call the fire service emergency number: 112 or alert the nearest fire stations to them in situations of fire outbreak.
“We will respond to phone calls of fire alert immediately we receive them,” he said.