· opts for composite materials for covers
Efforts to safe guard critical infrastructure including manhole covers, may gradually be yielding results in the Federal Capital Territory, as the administration recently took delivery of 700 covers recovered from vandals.
The covers were retrieved from the court by the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA, after nearly 4 years of depositing them as exhibit.
The Executive Secretary of FCDA, Alhaji Shehu Ahmad, told the media that the recovery was made possible following the intervention of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
Despite the development, the FCDA still requires over 24,000 of such covers if it must seal up the 25000 manhole, gully pots covers and other installations reportedly stolen across the Federal Capital City.
The immediate past Executive Secretary of FCDA, Engr Umar Jibrin, had in 2021 set up a Task Force to audit the number of vandalized, stolen manholes as well as gully pot covers in the FCC.
The team reported that a total of 25,000 covers, made up of gully pots, storm water manholes, foul water manholes, telecommunication ducts, waterboard keys and fire hydrants have either been vandalised or stolen.
The ES while reacting to the latest recovery said the agency was caught in a Catch 22 Situation as, “The manholes have been clearly stolen, criminals were arrested and the materials were taken and deposited with the NSCDC as exhibit because the issue is in court.
“For over three to four years we have been battling to retrieve them from government but not until last week we are able to break through by the intervention of the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF.
“The AGF ordered the court to release those exhibits so that we can replace some of them back because have a larger chunk of them, over 600 to 700 pieces, but it will not do much by the time we collect them and start replacement. On a stretch of a road, we need more than a thousand.
“When we collect them, we can provide them for those areas that are a lit bit more secure. Even within these premises we can say we can replace some manholes covers with some confidence but outside this area we cannot guarantee.”
Ahmad, who expressed concern that the administration needed to replace thousands of vandalized manhole covers, with huge sum of money, said government was considering alternative manhole covers with less second hand value.
He said the plan is to have the new covers configured with locks, using composite materials that can stand the test of time.
“We are now using some other products which have less second-hand value from our understanding and believe because the vandals are still thinking of how to still make value from the alternative we are trying to make.
“But honestly we are been able to get some composite materials and around this road you will see some of these things already been deployed.
“We have also reached out to Ajaokuta steel and so many people other people are presenting all kinds of products some as corporate social responsibility but some of the product did not pass our relevant tests for them to be sustainable on our roads.
“But some we have to subject them to give them our own specifications and I think some few of such have been confirmed to pass our tests and we are also deploying concrete and composite materials now.”
The House of Representatives had in August expressed concern that manhole covers in the FCT were being stolen by unpatriotic individuals, leaving the manholes open and posing grave danger to unsuspecting motorists and pedestrians.
The House, following a motion moved under matters of urgent national importance by Hon. Musa Pali, directed the FCTA to cover all manholes in the city.
The lawmakers also urged the security agencies to provide surveillance against theft of manhole covers and has mandated its Committee on the FCT to ensure compliance and report back within six weeks for further legislative action.
