Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FTC), Abuja, may be losing millions of Naira to increasing activities of vandals.
These vandals target the city’s traffic lights and accessories, which they likely sell for money, a situation that the state needs to address to end huge amount of money spent on the the procurement of accessories to replace the stolen.
The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has said it was grappling to run the country on a lean purse and that it has prioritised its projects, with efforts made to reduce spending. But this situation in Abuja will for sure cost the government more money.
Addressing a gathering of Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) from the north-central part of Nigeria, an event hosted by NUJ Abuja Chapter, the FCT minister, Mohammed Bello, who was a special guest, poured out his heart over the vandals’ activities.
He lamented that the criminal act was eating deep into the resources of his administration.
Worst hit is the traffic lights and a tour around some parts of Africa’s fastest growing city revealed the extent of vandalism.
Huge number of vehicles come into the city of Abuja daily, but non-functional traffic lights add to the frustration of drivers, a situation that has led to several accidents and those are frequent on Abuja’s well-planned highways.
The Minister of the FCT further urged Abuja residents to be vigilant.
Mr Bello also said that the matter had been reported to security agencies.
The administration will be happy to apprehend the culprits, but for now, they have to spend scarce funds to fix panel boxes and lights to ease free flow of traffic.