Vandals Destroy 108 Transmission Towers In Nine Months – TCN

The federal government says vandals destroyed 109 transmission towers nationwide in nine months.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria disclosed this in its recent data on vandalization.

Accordingly, TCN said the vandals destroyed 132kV double circuit power transmission lines, and 330kV double circuit lines, and carried out soil excavation that threatened transmission towers.

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The vandalism of transmission towers occurred in the Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Enugu, and Benin regions.

TCN said it has contracted out the repairs of some of the vandalized towers.

It added that at the Port Harcourt sub-region, some cases of vandalism included Owerri Ahoada 132kv DC Line (T199 – T211), IPP/Elelenwo 132kv DC Line (T40, T43, T52 and T53), Owerri/Ahoada 132kv Line (T203 – T217), Ahoada/Yenagoa 132kv Line (T19 – T31) and IPP/Elelenwo 132kv Line (T40).

“In the Kano region of TCN, 49nos. towers were vandalised; Osogbo region, 51; Abuja region, 19; Enugu region, 18; among others. Nine towers, from Tower 56 to Tower 65 along the Papalanto/Abeokuta 132kV transmission line, located in the Obafemi Owode area of Ogun State, were all massively vandalized, leading to their collapse on May 23, 2023.

“As a result, Abeokuta and its environs were out of power supply for some days as the company had to supply bulk electricity through an alternate line to enable Ibadan Disco (distribution company) to distribute electricity to its customers whose supply was affected by the incident.

“In the same vein, there were frequent activities of vandals in the TCN Aba sub-region in August 2023, with repair costs totaling about N23. They include 122No earthing copper conductors and 244No copper cable lugs with N366,000 worth of galvanized bolts and nuts carted away.

“Uyo Work Centre has only one case of vandalism at Itu T/S, where an underground cable connected to the generator was vandalized.

“The Benin region was not left out of the nefarious acts as vandals attacked towers 30 to 33 along the Ihovbor-Osogbo-Benin-Osogbo double circuit transmission line, cutting the legs of the four towers, but they did not collapse and therefore did not interrupt bulk power transmission on that line,” it said.

In September 2023 alone, the country recorded at least two national grid collapses, which resulted in a nationwide blackout.