Borno, Yobe in Darkness Again after Vandals Attack TCN Power Lines
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
About two years after the federal government managed to restore power supply to some troubled parts of the North-east, vandals have again attacked power lines belonging to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), throwing Borno and Yobe into darkness.
The TCN in a statement yesterday announced that one of its towers, tower T372 around Katsaita village in Yobe State was vandalised, yesterday, bringing down the 330kV transmission tower which subsequently pulled down tower T373 along the same transmission line route.
The incident is comings roughly two years after electricity was restored to Borno, after Boko Haram destroyed the transmission lines, throwing the whole state in total darkness.
The insurgents routinely vandalised power lines before now, although any such incidents hadn’t happened since the weakening of the Boko Haram insurgents by the Nigerian government.
In 2021, after the government attempted to restore power in Borno following the destruction of power assets, terrorists planted explosive devices along the path, killing some staff of the TCN who were working to restore electricity and injured others, including some soldiers who were on guard duty.
In the latest incident, the TCN stated that explosives were also used by the vandals to bring down the two major power assets.
“The incident, which took place at about 21:18 yesterday, the 21st of December, 2023, caused the failure of power supply to parts of the North East, namely, Yobe and Borno states.
“While patrolling the line to ascertain the cause of the cut in power supply, TCN engineers discovered the fallen towers, and the villagers confirmed they heard a loud explosion before the tower came down.
“On closer investigation, the engineers found evidence of explosive used by the vandals in bringing down the towers,” the statement by the General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, TCN stated yesterday.
To ameliorate the situation, the TCN said it had mobilised one of its contractors to the site of the incident to commence the reconstruction of the transmission towers damaged by the vandals.
“TCN strongly condemns the incident and regrets the inconvenience caused to the government and people of Yobe and Borno states and pledges to do all that is possible to quickly re-erect the towers to restore power supply to the affected areas.
“We are once again making an urgent appeal to host communities to collaborate with TCN in the fight against vandalism and the necessary preservation of power infrastructure nationwide, which is our collective asset,” Mbah added.
