Ghana National Fire Service Threatens Massive Demo

Some officers of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) have given notice that they would eventually go on a nationwide demonstration following what they describe as moves by �the powers that be� to migrate them from the Ministry of Interior to the Local Government Service; an issue officials of the Fire Service have sealed their mouths on. The resentful officers, made up of both senior and junior officers are of the view that less attention will be given to the GNFS if it is moved to the Local Government Service, which they say has �numerous agencies that it�s battling to resource.� Speaking in separate interviews with The Al-Hajj under conditions of anonymity, a peeved Fire officer remarked �even under the Interior Ministry which oversees the operations of less number of agencies, the GNFS is seriously confronted with daunting challenges including inadequate resources and logistics�if we are moved to the local government service, which has thousands of agencies under it, then it means the Fire Service will collapse and some of us will be out of job.� Explaining how the news got to them, another aggrieved officer explained that �Late last year, we heard there were plans to move us to the Local Government service, but the rumor was greeted with serious agitations, which prompted the Head of Public Relations of GNFS, Ellis Robinson OKoe to issue a press release on November 6, 2012 denying it.� The Fire Service PRO in his release explained that the idea of migrating the fire service to the Local government service was just a proposal Professor Kwame Ahwoi made at a Coordinating Committee Validation Workshop on decentralization and not any directive from the government, adding �so he told us to go about our normal duties without any consternation because there was no such plan.� Owing to this, the Fire officers noted that just last week, they picked up another information that the Chief Fire Officer and his Directors met some officials from the Local Government Service and the Ministry of Interior to discuss on ways to migrate the GNFS to the Local Government Service, a move they say will spell doom for the fire agency. �We are in the know that, already plans are underway to get some selected Fire officers to go for orientation service in the Eastern Region regarding the migration, but we will not allow it to happen�in fact, we will hit the street if they fail to rescind that decision,� the fire officers noted. They continued �when we start the demonstration, which will be in series, it will not stop and it will be nationwide, until something is done about our plight�even as we are speaking, we don�t have enough water cannon, safety gadgets and what have you; even the Interior Ministry that has only seven agencies under it can�t provide these things and you think the local government service with hundreds of District Assemblies, can do it?,� they queried. The Ministry of Interior being the government's chief agency in charge of maintenance and enforcement of internal law and order has seven agencies under it. This includes the GNFS, the Refugee Board and the Ghana Police Service. The others are the Ghana Immigration Service, the National Disaster Management Organization, the Narcotics Control Board and the Ghana Prisons Service. When contacted, officials of the PR outfit of the GNFS refused to give details relating to the issue. Its PRO, Billy Anaglatey only confirmed the issue, but declined to provide further information on it.