FCTA spends N900m on street light maintenance

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has said that maintaining street lights in the nation’s capital from January 2017 to December 2017 gulped N900 million.

The coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Umar Shuiabu, said yesterday that the amount was paid to Abuja Electricity Distribution Company ( AEDC).

He said that was coming against the backdrop of incessant power shortages in some parts of the city that have left many districts of Abuja in darkness.

“May I disclose that FCT Administration has released the sum of N914,741,886 to AEDC as payment for electricity bills.

“We are determined to sustain and to illuminate major streets of the nation’s capital and the council has engaged (AEDC) to jointly make a road map towards resolving the issue of incessant power shortage in the Federal Capital City,” he said.

Shuiabu, who expressed worry that the efforts of the council had continued to be jeopardized by activities of some criminal elements who were always vandalising public utilities, especially street lighting cables and other equipment, stated that the administration was working to ensure that all the leakages being exploited by the vandals were blocked.

He added that the council had engaged 27 cleaning contractors to manage 27 districts of the city.

The AMMC co-ordinator also lamented that indiscriminate dumping of refuse was still persisting in some parts of the FCT.

He assured that more contractors would be brought on board for other 48 districts yet to be covered for effective environmental sanitation.