Contractors handling streetlights in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have blamed the constant outages and load shedding by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) as being responsible for the darkness in the nation’s capital.
They said the streetlights were in working order contrary to reports of laxity from them.
The contractors also said some places in the FCT are not under the maintenance of any contractor, which the FCT Department of Facility and Maintenance can attest to.
The legal secretary of FCT Streetlights Maintenance Contractors, Barr Festus Ugwu, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues yesterday, said it was unfair and scandalous to generalise that Abuja is dark because of the contractors’ inefficiency who have almost fulfilled their contractual obligations.
He said, “Our attention has been drawn to media reports about the darkness in the Federal Capital Metropolis and its environs, which has been wrongly attributed to the laxity of the streetlight contractors.
“To put the record straight, the contract was awarded in August 2022 and it is expected to end by July 31, 2024, with a fixed contract rate from inception, irrespective of inflation and hike in prices of materials and labour.
“Nevertheless, we, the contractors, have been optimally delivering our assigned responsibilities despite all our appeals for the review of the contract sum, which the FCT administration remains adamant about.
“The major problem with streetlights in FCT is a result of constant power outages and load shedding by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) ; otherwise, the streetlights are always active and ready to shine,” he said.
The contractors further said that despite the effort of the contractors who worked assiduously to ensure that the city is lite up, they are yet to be paid in accordance with the contract terms and conditions signed by the FCT administration.
“It may surprise you that the contractors are owed seven months now, and this has been the treatment from the FCT administration. Meanwhile, the contractual agreement says that contractors’ payment attract penalties if it is more than 90 days.
“Furthermore, the high rate of vandalism, as mentioned, which obviously affects the total cost of contract execution has not deterred us from performing our contractual obligations optimally.
“At this juncture, may we also inform the public that maintenance and security of Solar Powered streetlight installations in FCT is not covered by our contract and any vandalism to those installations might render the area too dark at night,” he said.