Six Electricity Towers Damaged by Vandals in Nasarawa

Vandals brought down six transmission towers on the important Apir-Lafia transmission line in Nasarawa State. This caused major power supply problems, according to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

The incident happened on 30 May around 1:15 a.m. during a heavy rain.

Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s General Manager for Public Affairs, said in a statement from Abuja on Wednesday that a trial reclosure of line II took place at 2:08 a.m. But it did not work.

Ms Mbah explained that the tripping of the lines led to a physical inspection to find the fault. This inspection showed damage to important parts of towers T125 to T130. It confirmed that vandalism occurred in those parts of the transmission line.

She noted that because of this incident, both Apir, Lafia 330kV Transmission Lines I and II are not working until the damaged towers are rebuilt.

“TCN engineers have been sent to the site to check how bad the damage is and to find out what materials are needed to start fixing the transmission line,” she said.

“In the meantime, the Lafia 330kV Transmission Station is getting power through the Lafia, Jos transmission line as a temporary solution.

“This is to lessen the effect of the power cut on customers served by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC),” she added.

Ms Mbah strongly condemned the ongoing vandalism of power transmission equipment. She said it threatens years of investment in the power sector.

The company asked 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 act together to protect the national grid and ensure a steady power supply.