From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
A legal practitioner, Ogun State Government has commenced a solar-powered streetlights project across the state as part of measures to ensure the safety and security of the citizenry.
The government’s move is coming on the heels of recent arrests of vandals stealing streetlight cables and other accessories along the Sagamu Interchange-Abeokuta Expressway by security agents, with one of the criminals nabbed for stealing a transformer.
Disclosing this in a chat with newsmen in Abeokuta, yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Energy Matters, Oluwafemi Omisanjo, said persistent vandalism of government assets, especially the many streetlights on the highways across the state, forced the current administration to seek an alternative to the generator-powered street lights.
Consequently, the Dapo Abiodun-led administration, he said, decided to introduce a more secure and sustainable solution, adding that a pilot scheme of the solar-powered streetlight has commenced in some parts of Abeokuta, the state capital.
Omisanjo said the government will replace the streetlights on Sagamu Interchange-Abeokuta Expressway with a solar-powered system.
The government, he added, is also embarking on a full-scale analysis of the planned deployment of the newly introduced solar-powered streetlights to replace the current ones across the state.
“Very soon, the people will begin to see and feel the impact of this solution. We assure them of their security and safely in all parts of the state,” he said.