LCC Explains Fibre Cut Incident, Placates Stakeholders

Lekki Concession Company (LCC), concessionaires for the Lekki]Epe Expressway under the Lagos Public]Private Partnership Infrastructure Project, has apologized to MTN and affected stakeholders for the accidental severance of fibre optic cables while its contractor, Hitech Construction Company, was undertaking ongoing road construction works there last week, culminating in the temporary disruption of telecommunications services.
Many MTN corporate customers, including banks, which rely on its fibre optic infrastructure for their online banking and ATM services, experienced several hours of disruption that day, before repairs were made on the damaged cable.
At a joint press conference last week, organized with officials of MTN at LCC’s office in Victoria Island, Mr. Opuiyo Oforiokuma, LCC’s chief executive officer, explained that the damage to the fibre optic cable was purely accidental, informing that due care and attention is routinely taken by its contractor to avoid properly buried transmission cables during excavation, but that in spite of their best efforts, the fibre optic cable of MTN was accidentally cut.
He said that the company has taken measures to ensure that such incidents are reduced to the barest minimum including working closely with telecommunications operators to identify fibre optic routes, sending workers for the relevant training, and ensuring that experienced supervisors are on site at any given time to monitor work progress.
Mr. Oforiokuma decried the activities of miscreants who visit project sites to scavenge for steel, noting that the miscreants in the process of doing this often damage fragile telecom infrastructure located in the area.
Mr. Wale Goodluck, MTN’s Corporate Services executive, at the press conference said “MTN’s 3,500 kilometer fibre optics network is the most extensive private network of its kind in Africa, and it is commonly regarded as the springboard for the ICT revolution in sub Saharan Africa. Our fibre optics network is therefore of profound significance to our service offering to our customers and any cuts or disruption to its functionality has a great deal of negative impact on our customers.”
He noted that the incident which led to hours of service outage was regrettable and contrary to MTN’s ‘can do’ philosophy and its avowed commitment to provide world-class services that exceed customers’ expectations, while assuring their customers that MTN will continue to cooperate with LCC to ensure that such incidents along the project site are minimized.