Monrovia – In an effort to help the Liberian National Police which announced recently an installation of civilian camera (CCTV) in various parts of the streets to create a safe environment mainly at night, the Liberia Electricity Corporation over the weekend began an exercise of replacing the damaged streets light in the city.
LEC says the exercise will not only be limited to the major streets in Central Monrovia but will extend to the ELWA Junction and to other communities in and around Monrovia.
Speaking to a team of journalists during a wet night on Broad Street over the weekend, the acting Managing Director Ernest Hughes who just took over the Board of Directors said the installation of streets lights is to help improve the security condition in the country.
He added that in the absence of the streets lights, nobody is going to see the CCTV footage of what is happening at night.
He said: “One of the things we’re trying to do is to make the streets of Monrovia safe. “
“I think you heard the Police Director, they had already started with the CCTV, where they will improve the security condition of the country.”
“And what we are trying to do is to lighten up the city so that our people can walk around safely.”
“As part of our effort, because if the CCTV is there and the light is off; nobody is going to monitor what the guys are going to do by night.”
“So, our effort is to support that process.
New Lights on the Way
Over the time the streets lights have not been durable, which raised concern about the effectiveness of CCTV installations.
Although the LEC admitted to the fact that the lights are not durable, the Acting Managing Director says the installation is to clear things out of the warehouse and also to provide a temporary security solution.
He added that plans are underway to restore lights in all parts of the city in the next couple of months.
“Like for example, the guys are up here tonight to put the light on when you come back in couples of days you will see that they are completely off”, Hughes said.
He added that they have sent one of their employees to Ghana and also the World Bank to see how best they can borrow some streets light from them.
“And I think you guys have seeing the light on the SKD Boulevard that was provided by the World Bank. “
“It is more durable better quality; we are going to try to see whether we can use that as well,” the LEC Managing Director said.