TCN Targets Sunday to Restore Power to North, Says Insecurity Hindering Efforts

*Adelabu seeks stiffer penalties for electricity assets’ vandals

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) yesterday disclosed that it would by next Sunday restore regular electricity supply to majority of parts of the north impacted by the ongoing blackout in the region.

Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja, the Chief Executive of TCN, Sule Abdulaziz, stated that although the company was doing its best to restore bulk power to the region, bandits in the area had thwarted the efforts.
Abdulaziz stated that Shiroro Mando 330kv line 1 tripped on  September 9, 2024, wherein patrol of safe area was done, but that the faulty section could not be reached due to insecurity.

 He explained that efforts were made by using local vigilante who confirmed snap conductor on a tower but they could not identify the tower number.

“Arrangements were made to use the local group to escort our engineers in the night to effect repairs in order to evade the bandits in the location. Unfortunately, we did not succeed because the bandits got wind of our intentions and laid siege to the area.

“Minimum supply was maintained to the North-West corridor through the second circuit until 13th October, 2024 when the second line tripped and failed to stay on trial re-closure.

“Local vigilantes were again engaged to comb the area but could only access part of the safe area. Hence, TCN solicited the support of the Nigeria Air force, Kaduna for unmanned aerial surveillance on 17th October 2024 and the impacted towers were identified. They were four in number with three totally collapsed and one number twisted,” he stated.

Besides, he stated that the vandalism of Ugwuaji-Apir 330kV lines was reported on October 21, 2024 causing tripping of the lines as trial re-closure failed and patrol revealed damaged conductors due to vandalism.

According to him, this compounded the transmission of bulk power to the Northern corridor as the lines serve as link between Northern and Southern area. This outage, he said, severely affected the wheeling capacity of TCN.

“The area affected has been secured with help of Nigerian Army and concerted effort is ongoing on one of the lines for restoration. Restoration of one of these lines will allow TCN to wheel about 400MW of power in that corridor.

“Also TCN is intensifying efforts to repair and restore the second line on Ugwuaji-Apir on or by Sunday 3rd November, 2024. This will avail TCN to wheel substantial quantum of power through Apir to Jos to Kaduna to Kano.

“TCN is working with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for security of personnel and site on Shiroro Mando 330kV SC lines for commencement of rehabilitation of impacted towers in this axis,” Abdulaziz stated.
Also, Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, who joined the meeting sought stiffer penalties for vandals, insisting that there must be an enactment of a legislation to make vandalism of electricity transmission installations a capital offence.

He urged members of the National Assembly to speedily pass the bill seeking to criminalise the act.

“There must be stiffer penalties. There has to be stiffer penalties, you said capital punishment, yes, maybe. It may not just be one month, two months or such fines. Those are too petty,” he added.

Adelabu also called for a ban of sale of scrap metals in the country, noting the buying and selling of the scraps was partly responsible for the destruction of electricity assets, adding that criminalising the act will reduce the attack on power infrastructure.

He added: “We have already sent a bill to ensure stiffer penalties for vandals at the National Assembly and we’re looking for its quicker passage and eventual onward transmission to Mr. President for assent. We cannot be at the mercy of the vandals who keep destroying public infrastructure.

“We beckoned on all Nigerians to see power assets as their facility and protect it. Apart from going back and forth to fix it costs lots of resources that could have been used to build new substations.”