The Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) has attributed the malfunctioning and lack of streetlights on the Accra-Tema Motorway to vandalism and theft by unpatriotic citizens.
Motorists have raised concerns over the absence of streetlights, which has resulted in frequent accidents and increased the risk of theft for pedestrians using the motorway.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, July 30, Cecil Nii Obodai Wentum, Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Highway Authority, revealed that some Ghanaians have been stealing streetlights, plunging the motorway into total darkness at night.
He highlighted that these individuals are not only stealing the streetlights but also removing metal covers and underground cables, which worsens the situation.
“Look, a number of people who I put in quote unpatriotic are destroying some of our infrastructural facilities. People deliberately go, take out these things, and destroy them, either they are stealing or taking parts. So it’s not that the streetlights are going off because they have expired and have to go off.”
Wentum explained how the coordinated thefts lead to sudden outages: “I had the opportunity to speak to the media on this issue before, especially on the motorway. You wake up one day and all of a sudden, you have more than 10 or 20 streetlights on a line all gone off. You ask yourself how is that possible? In all these facilities they communicate amongst themselves, and there are connections. So if you plug out and cut one out, they speak, people are stealing.”
He recounted a recent observation on the motorway: “Not too long ago, I was on the Motorway and was so saddened. Phase two of the motorway, the metal covers and the underground cable have all been cut by who? Ghanaians. These things happen deliberately, we have some unscrupulous persons in our communities.”
Wentum called for strict penalties for those involved in these acts: “Enforcement must work, we must work hand in hand and see how we can get people arrested and punished so that it will serve as a deterrent.”
He assured that approval has been granted for the procurement of new streetlights, and the contractor is working diligently to improve the motorway and reduce traffic congestion.
Wentum also urged motorists to exercise caution and adhere to speed limits due to the compromised structural integrity of the road.
Additionally, he expressed concerns about the impact of the government’s debt exchange programme on road infrastructure projects: “You are also aware that as a country, we have gone through some financial challenges. And this debt exchange programme has also affected a number of projects that the government started.”
He concluded with a hopeful note: “And I would want to assure the people of Ghana that, definitely we’re going to go through it and you will see most of our projects coming back, and we will see some good news.”