Fix streetlights in the presence of police

Ex-President John Dramani Mahama, in November 2013, used a platform offered him by the Catholic Archdiocese in Accra to tell Ghanaians that it was their responsibility to check crime, instead of leaving that on the shoulders of only the government and state agencies.

According to him, it was unfortunate that people sometimes looked on when crimes were being committed in broad daylight, and yet turned around to accuse the government and state agencies of doing nothing at all.

He made reference to the streets bulbs on the George Walker Bush highway, which had then been stolen by thieves, and noted that the crime was committed on broad daylight, yet, nobody bothered to report the miscreants to the police.

He revealed that the replacement of the bulbs, mostly on the stretch from the Tetteh Circle to Dimples Junction, would cost the nation GH400,000 – a cost that could have been avoided, if those who use the road had acted promptly by reporting the thieves to the police. Following this presidential reprimand, the police appealed to Ghanaians to volunteer information that would lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of the crime.

They also promised that, next time, when officials of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) or contractors they have contracted are working on any of our streetlights, police personnel would be deployed to the spot to assure the public that the workers were doing genuine business. But, if anyone is seen or working on streetlights without the presence of the police, such a person should be considered a thief and reported to the police accordingly.

The presence of the police was necessitated by the fact that though the general public or motorists saw the thieves using cranes to remove the bulbs, they thought they were genuine workers from the ECG, and could, therefore, not question them. Street bulbs play an important role when it comes to management of security in our metropolis.

Crimes are always high on streets that are not well lit. Just yesterday, we carried a story from Takoradi about the attacks on motorists around the Takoradi public cemetery due to the absence of streetlights on the highway that passes through the area. When the street is well illuminated, crime is brought to its barest minimum.

Back in Accra, The Chronicle is happy that the street lights on the N1, which were stolen, had been fixed, thus making it easy to drive on the stretch during the night.

We are, however, unhappy that the police have failed to honour their promise to make themselves available anytime EC officials or their assigned agents are going to work on the street lights. Nowadays, supposed workers of ECG are seen all over Accra using cranes to either remove or fix street lights without the presence of the police.  The development is also making it impossible for the general public to determine whether these workers are indeed genuine ones or not.

Should any patriotic citizen also dare to confront them, the person would be subjected to vitriolic attacks. To void this kind of public humiliation, most Ghanaians pass by these works of removing street bulbs without a whimper of protest, when, in fact, they could have been thieves, as it happened on the NI some few years back.

The Chronicle is, therefore, appealing to the police administration to honour its promise to accompany ECG officials on such duties, so that the public would know that they are not thieves, but genuine workers fixing the streetlights.

If they fail to do this, the thieves can take advantage of the situation to embark on another exercise to remove street bulbs, which would, again, come at a great cost to the tax payer to fix, as happened on the George Walker Bush Highway. Should that happen, no high-ranking government officials should mount platforms to castigate Ghanaians for looking on unconcerned when a crime is being committed. We rest our case!