Thieves have vandalised and stolen a large number of metal elements forming part of the safety gadgets of the Obetsebi Lamptey Interchange in Accra, barely 10 months after the facility was inaugurated.

A total of 964 metal components of the road system have been stolen, exposing motorists to danger.

The entire elements stolen comprise 354 spacer blocks, bolts and nuts; 185 U-connector bolts, nuts and washers; 118 sets of washer plates; 145 head plate bolts, nuts and washers; 59 reflectors; 37 U-connectors; 37 box hand railings and 29 pairs of head plates.

Officials are even more alarmed at the situation because the stolen components are not available on the local market and, as such, would have to be imported for replacement.

They are also unable to put a specific cost on the loss from the thefts, given that the stolen components belonged to bulk systems purchased as a whole.

“I believe this is a national security issue,” the Resident Engineer of the Obetsebi Lamptey Interchange Project, Owusu Sekyere Antwi, told the Daily Graphic, adding that “the quantity stolen is huge”.

Luckily, Mr Antwi said, the contractor was still on site and would consider how to replace the stolen components if there was some money left for the project.

“But we are still assessing the cost involved and then we will see the way forward,” he said.

He said that 96 per cent of the work on the project had been completed and that what was left included the final wearing course of the asphalt, road line markings, installation of pelican and traffic lights, and the construction of a footbridge from the Awudome Cemetery end across to the side of the STC yard.

“That's what we are left with now,” he added.

“The government promised that contractors would be paid, so once we are paid some part of the indebtedness, the contractor would quickly mobilise and get all those things done,” the engineer said.

Tour

At the site last Monday, there was clear evidence of the vandalism on the otherwise beautiful construction, especially on the portion from Mpramprom to the Graphic Road.

Large sections of the hand spacer block that hold the hand railings and the crash barriers have been removed, leaving barriers hanging.  

The metal covering on a concrete splice box for underground cables at the foot of the bridge facilitating power to the street lights has also been stolen.

Motorists and pedestrians along the interchange from the Graphic Road end towards Kaneshie now contend with poor visibility at night.

The Resident Engineer said they received information about stolen components of the interchange last year, but when they returned this year to do an inventory, “we realised that a lot more had been removed and stolen”.

“When it comes to quantifying the cost, it becomes a little bit difficult for us because all the items were imported (together) and they came in bulk,” he said, adding that the contractor was making arrangements to get in touch with the suppliers to understand the value of the stolen items.

He said most of the stolen items were for the safety of vehicles and workmen.

“We were tag-welding the bolts and nuts to make it more difficult to remove them,” he said, referring to measures deployed to prevent the thefts based on past experiences, but indicated that it did not prevent them from being stolen.

His outfit, he said, realised that the illegality was not done in a day, and that the criminals might have used days to remove the elements in bits.

“What we have realised is that they come round and break the welds, then come another time to loosen the bolts and nuts and take them away,” he said.

Security

Protecting the infrastructure, he said, was the responsibility of everyone.

Mr Antwi proposed, among various measures, occasional raids on depots used for scrap collection, advocating that once road or bridge construction components were found anywhere, those in charge of those depots should be held responsible. 

Police

The Deputy Commander of the Kaneshie District Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Famous Kudah, confirmed the arrest and prosecution of one Yaw Asare by the Dansoman Court after he was caught with a stolen item from the interchange.