FCTA Threatens To Sack Contractors over
Poor Maintenance of Streetlights
By: Ben Ukeji
The leadership of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has threatened to wield the big stick on contractors overseeing the maintenance of its public utilities, particularly Streetlights in the Abuja metropolis.
The Administration said, despite expending huge resources on monthly basis to meet its contractual obligations, the affected contractors have failed to regularly maintain the Streetlights, leaving some parts of the city’s major roads in darkness.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration, Olusade Adesola, who led a delegation of the management team of FCTA on a surprise inspection of the facilities, Tuesday night in Abuja, said the government was dissatisfied with the performance of the contractors.
Adasola, who was visibly saddened by the poor maintenance of the Streetlights in almost all the areas visited, disclosed that less than 30 percent of the Streetlights are functioning.
He insisted that the malfunctioning of the Streetlights was a violation of the contractual agreement the firms entered into with the government.
His words: “Look at this kind of a thing. Hardly will you count ten poles and find the streetlights working. We can not continue like this. We make payments to the contractors every month for the Streetlights to be maintained. Director, what is the performance functionality of Streetlights?
Contractor, if you come to your site and see this, will you be happy? This must be changed”.
The Permanent Secretary revealed that there have been complaints about accidents at night as well as some forms of nocturnal crimes as a result of inefficient illumination of the city.
Adesola, who was accompanied on the inspection by the Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, Umar Shuaibu, some Directors of the FCTA, and representatives of the companies handling the Streetlights maintenance, said the Administration must get value for monies paid to the contractors.
Some of the roads inspected include Murtala Mohammad Expressway, Sani Abach way, and Ademola Adetunkombo Crescent.
Others were Ring road 1 (Nnamdi Azikiwe Expressway), among others.
