Yobe and Borno State’s electricity customers are now without power after vandals using explosives toppled the transmission towers that provided the states with electricity.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria, or TCN, confirmed the unfortunate news on Friday in Abuja through a statement released by Ndidi Mbah, the general manager of TCN’s public affairs department. The statement stated that the incident happened at approximately 9:18pm on Thursday.
In the meantime, the company stated that it has sent one of its contractors to the scene of the accident in order to start rebuilding the damaged transmission towers.
The statement reads; “The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby states that one of its towers, tower T372 around Katsaita Village in Yobe State was vandalised, yesterday, 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 of 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 explosives 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.
“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.”
