Many residents of Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, had cause to heave a sigh of relief when streetlights were recently restored in some parts of the city.

Before now, hoodlums and criminals had taken advantage of the darkness on Ilorin streets to unleash terror on law-abiding residents. There were many cases of armed robbery and women dared not to venture out of their homes once it was dark for fear of rapists.

For awhile, criminals virtually laid siege to Ilorin, even carving out 'territories' from parts of the city with audacity.

Towards the end of 2011, some killers attacked passersby on lonely streets at night and allegedly collected their blood with white handkerchiefs for ritual purposes.

The horror persisted and forced an unofficial curfew in many neighbourhoods within the city. This affected nightlife, as many people had to hurry home before darkness fell in order to avoid being attacked.

Such was the sense of insecurity in the town that the then Commissioner of Police, Mr. Peter Gana, advised residents, including religious organisations, to avoid moving about at night.

Also, commercial motorcyclists were restricted to operating between 7 am and 6 pm.

In their reaction to the tense atmosphere that pervaded the state capital, some security experts had appealed to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to provide streetlights, which they believed would illuminate many dark spots in the city and prevent criminals from carrying out their activities.

So when the administration of Ahmed decided to restore the streetlights, many people were overjoyed.

As a result of this gesture, there is an improvement in commercial activities in Ilorin at night. Residents could now transact business and do other things after nightfall. Most of them told Sights and Signs of Nigeria that security had improved in the city since the streetlights were rehabilitated.

As expected, nightlife and social activities have bounced back, even as new night clubs have sprung up. The old ones have reopened within the last few months. Once again, life has returned to the streets of Ilorin.

In an interview with our correspondent, the Senior Special Assistant to Ahmed on Media and Communication, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, said some of the areas where the streetlights have become functional again include the area between Mobil petrol filling station and Offa Motor Park, the Michael Imoudu National Institute of Labour Studies, the stretch of road from Tanke Roundabout to University of Ilorin Gate, Maraba Junction to Zango, as well as Geri Alimi to Isale Oja, which is almost completed.

The lights at the Ilorin Agricultural Development Board and Government Secondary School, Ilorin Roundabout are powered by solar energy.

"In an effort to improve the security and wellbeing of commuters and residents of the area, Governor Ahmed approved solar powered lights for this area. There were reports of attacks on residents of the area at night. So, the governor felt that there is the need to enhance streetlighting in the area," Akorede says.

"He therefore directed that the junction should have solar power lights, as well as the conventional ones. The essence is that during outage of the conventional lights, the solar ones can provide support light and still make the place safe for the people of the state and visitors alike.

"Since the introduction of the solar powered and conventional lights, we have not received any single report of attacks in that area."

So far, the state government has erected a total of 300 units of streetlights at the cost of N512m in different parts of the city.

Akorede says they are part of Ahmed's urban renewal project, which aims at beautifying the urban areas in order to enhance the people's social and economic lives, as well as security.

The governor also expects the beautification project to assist government's efforts to attract foreign and local investments to the state.

A resident, Alhaji Jubril Ishola, describes the gesture as a good development. But he appealed to the government to ensure the regular maintenance of the streetlights.

"The restoration of streetlights has really improved movement and security of lives in the city. Since they were introduced, I have not heard of any attacks. But I would like to appeal to Ahmed to ensure that the lights are regularly maintained so that the money spent on the project will not go down the drain," he says.

Another resident, Miss Jane Imoke, appealed to Ahmed to extend the lights to some of the tertiary institutions and secondary schools in the metropolis.

She says, "The government should extend the gesture to areas leading to tertiary institutions and even secondary schools in Ilorin. That will further improve security of lives and property in those places."

Mrs. Bosede Akinkugbe urged the government to ensure that the streetlights were always switched on. She says, "The government should ensure that the lights are always functioning at nights. We understand the epileptic public power supply in the country. But the aim of the projects will be defeated if they are not always powered on.

"The government can go a step further by providing alternative generating plants to complement public power supply so that when there is outage by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, the standby generators will then be used to power the streets lights," Akinkugbe said.