Streetlights Vanish In Tema

A street lamp with stolen wire

There is heightened stealing of streetlights in Tema because of the valuable copper wires within them; the thieves sell the wires in the Tema metropolis.

The Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) has procured over 3,000 units of LED streetlights to be installed across the metropolis after the previous ones were stolen. The exercise which is about 60 per cent complete also involves the total replacement of all existing underground cables.

Shockingly, as the project progressed, the thieves have descended upon the replaced lights and wires, stealing them as they have always done.

DAILY GUIDE has observed that the thieves usually present themselves as technicians working for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), and they frequently operate their criminal activities at Community 5, Tema General Hospital road and Ottawa Electoral Area.

Speaking on the matter, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of TMA, Felix Mensah Annan-La, said “our development aspirations, as a nation, will forever remain a mirage if we do not make conscious efforts to effect a drastic change in our attitudes towards public assets.”

According to him, protection of public property should be a shared responsibility and not only the sole mandate of the security agencies.

A concerned resident added “we must redesign and plan our cities with some sort of surveillance systems so that as we continue to analyse frames on a daily basis the authorities can do some arrests and put them before the law courts. It could even serve as a source of revenue for the assembly.”

From Vincent Kubi, Tema