Vandals have destroyed six transmission towers on the important Apir-Lafia transmission line in Nasarawa State. This has caused serious power supply issues, according to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The incident happened on 30 May at around 1:15 a.m. during heavy rain.
Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s General Manager for Public Affairs, shared this information in a statement from Abuja on Wednesday. She mentioned that a trial reclosure of line II was attempted at 2:08 a.m. but it failed.
Ms Mbah explained that the tripping of the lines led to a physical inspection to find the problem. This inspection showed damage to important parts of towers T125 to T130, confirming that vandalism occurred in the affected areas of the transmission corridor.
As a result of this damage, both Apir-Lafia 330kV Transmission Lines I and II are currently out of service. They will remain out until the damaged towers are rebuilt.
“TCN engineers have been sent to the site to check the level of damage and figure out what materials we need to start fixing the power supply along the corridor,” she said.
In the meantime, the Lafia 330kV Transmission Station is getting power through the Lafia-Jos transmission line as a temporary fix. This is to help lessen the effects of the outage on customers in the areas served by Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC),” she added.
Ms Mbah also condemned the ongoing vandalism of power transmission equipment. She said it threatens years of investments in the power sector.
The company is urging local communities and the public to stay alert and report any suspicious activities around transmission facilities to security agencies or the nearest TCN office.
She emphasized that everyone needs to work together to protect national grid assets. This will help ensure a steady power supply for everyone.
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