TCN: Vandals Bring Down Towers in Yobe

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has stated that one of its towers, Tower T372 around Katsaita Village in Yobe State was vandalised, bringing down the 330kV transmission tower, which pulled down tower T373 along the same transmission line route.

The incident, which took place at about 21:18 hours on December 21, 2023, caused the failure of power supply to parts of the North-east, namely Yobe and Borno States.

This is contained in a press release that was issued yesterday by the General Manager, Public Affairs, TCN, Ndidi Mbah.

The release stated that “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.

“Presently, TCN mobilised one of its contractors to the site of the incident to commence the reconstruction of the transmission towers damaged by the vandals.”

According to the release, “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 infrastructures nationwide, which is our collective asset.”