Restore Street Lights, Replace Manholes – HOR To FCTA

The House of Representatives has urged the Federal Capital Territory Administration to restore street lights and replace stolen manholes in Abuja.

The Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, FCT,, when constituted, was mandated to ensure implementation.

This followed adoption of a motion “Call on the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, to Restore Street Lights in Abuja Metropolis sponsored by Okpolupm Etteh’ from Akwa Ibom.

Presenting the motion, the Lawmaker who noted the darkness on major roads and streets in Abuja at night as a result of inadequate lighting said that this creates avenue for some criminal-minded elements to perpetrate crime, touting and intimidation of innocent law abiding Nigerians and also makes the city unsafe for residents and visitors.

He explained that most of the street lights installed on many highways and streets in the FCT are moribund and not functional.

Mr. Etteh highlighted major roads without street lights which includes Herbert Macaulay Way, Muhammadu Buhari Way, Jabi Area, Aminu Kano Crescent, Ahmadu Bello Way and Independence Avenue, which houses the Three Arms Zone, National Assembly, Supreme Court and the Presidential Villa; the Federal Secretariat to Louis Edet House, (Police Headquarters), the street lights are comatose.

He said despite the prevailing darkness in most areas of the Federal Capital Territory at night, there is minimal and inadequate presence of stationary policemen or police patrol vans along some dangerous stretches of roads and under the bridges.

The Lawmaker maintained that the Federal Capital Territory, the nation’s capital, ought to have been maintained with modern facilities and should have alternative sources of power like standby generators at strategic positions on the main road, as a backup power supply in cases of power outage.

“The House is concerned that most states of the Federation that do not have the huge yearly budgetary allocation like the FCT, maintain constant power supply in their various state capitals, therefore, the administrative headquarters of Nigeria should be more attractive to visitors and investors at night.

“The House worried that despite the budgets that have been committed to providing the facilities and ensuring their maintenance, the once brilliantly lit city is creeping into darkness as many of the street lights have collapsed”.

Oduyemi Odumade, Edited By Grace Namiji