FCT minister tasked on protection of traffic lights

The Director of Traffic lights installations in the Transportation Secretariat of the FCT Administration, Engineer Vincent Igberaese, has raised the alarm on the increased vandalisation of traffic lights across the city,

thereby beckoning on the office of the Minister, Mallam Muhammad Bello, to ensure an increased security network to bring the perpetrators to book and to possibly end the menace.

Engineer Igberaese said this in an exclusive interview with The Abuja Times in Abuja recently. He stressed that the plea has become necessary due to the unwarranted attacks hoodlums has meted on the traffic lights installation across the 77 interceptions across the FCT.

According to him, the department is presently encountering numerous problems despite effort to ensuring stable traffic light for easy vehicle flow.

Among the problems, he said, includes under staffing of the department with just 27 staff that contend with numerous challenges of traffic lights installations.

He disclosed also that despite huge challenges waiting the 27 staff, the department was able to save the FCT administration huge amount of money from its former contractors.

He said: “Initially, the FCT made use of contractors for the installation and maintenance of the traffic lights but we felt that the administration was spending so much and placed some technicians to under study the contractors secretly and that has just paid off as we no longer need the services of such companies.

We now make use of casual staff who are mostly youth corps members because we saw that it could be easier to train in-house staff to minimise cost”.

Engineer Igberaese further revealed that the inclusion of additional hands would ensure that the department functions optimally.

“We all know that due to the ban on employment, the Administration is not employing but be that as it may, there is an urgent need for it now and we want the administration to see the need.

We call on the FCT administration to add more hands by staffing the youth corps members who have learnt how to install the traffic lights.

The fact remains that most of us, out of the 27 staff are no longer at the point of going to the field because some of us are now directors and Deputy directors whose jobs are basically policy formulation and that gives room for energetic and youthful ones to step in,” he added.

Further speaking on the need for the Government to bring the vandals to book, Igberaese submitted that his target is to see the hoodlums apprehended and to allow Government infrastructure serve the purpose with which they were installed which is serving the citizens.

“You and I know that Government spends lots of money to put these things in place but they keep disappearing despite all efforts by the security agencies track them down.

We have approached them at different levels, we have also gone by ourselves but of no avail but we have discovered a new measure which we think may not be easy for the hoodlums to gain easy access to the solar batteries”.

On the way forward, Engineer Igberaese revealed that his leadership has upgraded from the old system of electricity powered traffic light to the modern wireless solar energy powered ones at the 77 junctions signalised with the latest technology.

He said that the department will be counting a number of 78 intercessions being handled by the department across the FCT when another intercession is signalised in no distant time.

He is also hopeful that more of intercessions are to be signalised as Abuja expands in development.

Engineer Igberaese also made known the intention of the administration to make the FCT a smart city through the installation of ICT backbone with a central monitoring circuit to police the entire territory.

“We are heading somewhere that is for the FCT to bear the same look of mega cities across the world.

It is such that police and soldiers and other security agencies don’t have to be at the junctions to arrest traffic offenders. All these jobs are done technologically and that is the feature of smart cities,” he added.