Monrovia – An aspirant of Montserrado County District #9 has cried on the Ministry of Public Works to install pedestrian lights he donated more than a year ago.
Report by Edwin Genoway – [email protected]
Fubbi Henries since February 2016, he donated few pieces of pedestrian lights to the Ministry to be installed in the streets of Sinkor to avoid pedestrians coming in conflict with vehicles, the Ministry is yet to carry on the installment.
“We are disappointed about the delay in the installment of pedestrian lights we donated to the Ministry of Public Works.”
“Since last year we donated those items to the Ministry to install them on the major streets of Monrovia, the items are just in the warehouse of the ministry being eaten by the dust,” he said.
Henries, who is also an aspirant of Montserrado County District #9, said his donation was in good faith as pedestrians in Monrovia are threatened by speeding vehicles.
He said it is disheartening to see those in public offices not paying much attention to public safety, saying they should be there for the people.
“The sole purpose of being in government is to ensure that the wellbeing of the people are sorted out to the larger extent.”
“Your salaries and benefits that are being paid to you government officials are from the taxpayers’ money, whether it’s being direct or indirect taxes.”
“It is something that we expect you to uphold wholeheartedly,” he said.
Responding, the Deputy Minister for Technical Services at the Ministry of Public Works, Claude Langley, said receiving gifts from people is a good thing but the motive is worth observing. He said he believes in public private partnership.
He noted that it is sad that drivers do not have respect for pedestrians with everyone claiming rights to the road in the absence of pedestrian traffic lights.
But Fubbi disclosed that Public Works asked him (Fubbi) to conduct a traffic count before the lights could be installed; and that which he financed and completed but the MPW is yet to do installation.
“When I did the donation, the Ministry requested that I do traffic count before they can do the installation of the pedestrians lights.”
“I did finance the process and took the report to the Ministry but up to now, I haven’t heard a word from them,” he noted.
Assistant Minister for Planning and Programming at the Ministry of Public Works, Margaret Sarsih, in reaction told FrontPage Africa that during the donation by Henries, he requested specific locations for the lights to be installed.
“He requested that the lights be placed at specific locations on the Tubman Boulevard, and if those lights are placed in those locations, they need to be synchronized with existing lights and in order to do that, we have to conduct several studies, it is not just about traffic count or the number of pedestrians crossing the road.”
“You need to take into consideration the speed study and just everything that you can think about.”
“These are lights that we are to use and it is not like the existing one. If you put the pedestrians’ lights to those locations, you need to know the origin of the people using the lights,” she explained.
The electrical engineer of the Ministry of Public Works, Augustine Koffa said the lights donated were all of Alternating Current (AC) which can work with existing traffic lights at various intersections.
“Our problem here is that Liberia does not have constant electricity so the lights needed to be powered by solar so in the absence of electricity we will not have problem.
He said the testing of the light also proved otherwise.
“When we tested them, we noticed that lights take about fifteen minutes before it comes on, and when the traffic lights says go, the pedestrians lights instead of saying stop, it will turn green for pedestrians to cross and that does not correspond,” he stated.