The Federal Inland Income Service (FIRS) has moved to institutionalise a complete welfare scheme for its workforce, unveiling measures that assure lifetime assist for households of workers who die in service, following the latest Lagos hearth tragedy that claimed 4 staff.
Talking at a memorial service for the deceased, FIRS government chairman, Dr. Zacch Adedeji, unveiled plans for a belief fund, computerized job placement, and full academic sponsorship for the youngsters of workers who die in lively service.
“In FIRS, we don’t see ourselves as an establishment; we’re household. And in each household, when one is misplaced, all of us really feel the vacancy,” Adedeji mentioned. “This tragedy has reminded us of our collective accountability, not simply to income assortment, however to the lives that make the Service what it’s,” he mentioned.
Not like earlier one-off aid gestures in public service, the proposed belief fund is designed to survive Adedeji’s tenure. In accordance with him, the construction can be formally ratified with the bereaved households given full management, making certain transparency and sustainability.
The transfer comes after 4 workers, George Religion Ekelikhotse, David Oluwafemi Sunday-Jatto, Onyemelukwe Nkem Agnes, and Ifaranmaye Peter, misplaced their lives within the September 16 hearth at Afriland Towers in Lagos Island, which survivors mentioned was worsened by poor hearth response across the Balogun industrial hub.
To the household of the deceased, Adedeji assured that, “we stand with you, and we’ll proceed to stroll with you. Please be assured in figuring out that you’re not alone. I personally pledge that this establishment can be a pillar of assist for you throughout these troublesome instances. Those that can converse, we aren’t with out hope. We belief that our matriarchal God, who sees and is aware of all issues, will hold and relaxation their souls in an ideal peace.
“And we pray that you’ll grant energy and confidence to all of us that you just left behind. As we bear in mind them at present, allow us to additionally commit ourselves to the worth of training, integrity and science.
Allow us to lead and work in a means that ensures their reminiscence continues to encourage us.
“Could we collectively carry a legacy ahead and should nothing ever diminish the spirit of unity and dedication that outline our hope for this nation. And because the coverage of the service, I’ve learn the profile and particulars of our departed colleagues, the useless, burned, raped, overwhelmed and murdered on YouTube and YouTube. It isn’t in our phrases that we inform them that they’re to be left alone.”
Deputy supervisor of Tax on the Lagos Island workplace, Nasiru Usman, who narrowly escaped, urged authorities regulators to implement stricter hearth security codes in high-rise industrial buildings. “If there had been immediate motion regardless of the human site visitors, one thing might have been performed sooner,” he lamented.
Tributes on the service described the fallen officers as “quiet achievers” whose careers embodied humility and dedication to nationwide growth.
