Despite the efforts of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to attain nationwide electrification and increase financial improvement, the nefarious actions of vandals are sabotaging progress, plunging the plenty into darkness, studies DARE OLAWIN
The deliberate destruction of energy infrastructure, together with transmission traces, substations, and distribution gear, is hindering the nation’s means to supply dependable electrical energy to its residents and undermining the federal government’s initiatives to drive progress and prosperity. As the authorities try to ‘light up’ Nigeria, the scourge of vandalism poses a major menace to the realisation of this imaginative and prescient.
The Federal Government mentioned it had succeeded in elevating energy technology to 5GW from 4GW. However, vandals didn’t enable Nigerians to get pleasure from a steady energy provide.
In latest occasions, it seems the vandals now function with renewed vigour, defying all safety preparations to tug down electrical energy installations.
For a very long time, instances of cable theft, transformer vandalism and comparable crimes have been rife in numerous communities. This was the foremost pattern of vandalism within the Nigerian electrical energy provide business. Unfortunately, this menace has aggravated from cable theft to assaults on energy transmission towers.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria has been lamenting over this example however the vandals appear to be getting extra ‘energised’ by the day.
In the previous few weeks, no fewer than 20 towers have been pulled down by vandals, whose goals are but to be unknown. While many believed that these vandals have been terrorists, some mentioned they have been people whose intention was primarily to steal the irons and cable to promote the identical as scrap. Whatever the intentions are, the unhappy actuality stays that these vandals have continued to attract again the efforts of the federal government to ramp up energy provide within the nation.
In a latest report, the TCN expressed issues over the alarming rise in vandalism of transmission installations throughout the nation. The TCN spokesperson, Ndidi Mbah, mentioned the rising menace urgently required the cooperation of all residents, notably these in host communities, the place these installations have been positioned.
Though Mbah mentioned the TCN had persistently engaged safety operatives, host communities, and native vigilante teams in response to the difficulty, it seems the efforts of the safety brokers are usually not sufficient to curb this act.
Between July 1 and August 11, TCN installations have been mentioned to have skilled quite a few vandalism and widespread assaults within the six weeks, affecting each transmission area of the TCN.
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On August 7, safety operatives reportedly apprehended vandals in a blue pick-up van loaded with sacks containing tower members and cables stolen from transmission towers alongside the Damboa/Maiduguri 132KV transmission line. The vandals have been arrested by the police from the Damboa Police Station in Borno State.
The TCN spokesperson, Mbah, maintained that the tower members and cables have been stolen from the towers alongside the Damboa/Maiduguri 132kV transmission line, which was nonetheless below reconstruction attributable to a earlier vandalism assault on the identical line. This is why some have opined that the vandals could be deliberate in holding the individuals of this space in darkness.
It was additionally gathered that on August 11, some individuals attacked towers T377, T378, and T379 alongside the Gombe-Damaturu 330kV transmission line, which is present process fast and pressing restore following one other earlier vandalism incident involving improvised explosive units on towers T193 and T194. The use of IEDs could be a sign that this act was carried out by a terrorist group, although no group has claimed accountability.
Two of the perpetrators of the assaults on towers T377, T378, and T379 alongside the Gombe-Damaturu 330kV transmission line have been killed by hunters on the Damaturu finish of the road.
Also, on August 3 and 5, vandals attacked towers alongside two transmission line routes below the Enugu Region of TCN. The first assault focused tower T9 on the Apir-Aliede 330kV transmission line, and the second focused tower T12 on the Apir-Otukpo-Yandev 123kV transmission line, each passing by means of Ikpayango Village.
In response to the primary incident, the native vigilante group was in a position to forestall the vandals from stealing the skywire after it had been introduced down.
“Additionally, on August 5, 2024, vandals managed to cut off and steal the yellow phase conductor from towers T11 to T12 along the Apir-Otukpo-Yandev line, which caused a tripping of the 150MVA power transformer at the Apir Transmission Substation. TCN engineers responded swiftly by removing the remaining conductors on tower T11, allowing the continued supply of bulk electricity to Yandev, Otukpo, and Takum through the 132kV New Haven-Otukpo transmission line,” the TCN mentioned in a press release.
Mbah added that the TCN workforce had efficiently sectionalised the affected towers to facilitate repairs whereas stabilising each ends of the sectionalised community that provides energy to Otukpo, Yandev, and Takum from the New Haven Substation. She maintained that the 150MVA transformer had been examined and restored.
Similarly, a yet-to-be-identified group of people on July 24 struck within the Osogbo Region, vandalising Tower T328 alongside the 330kV Osogbo-Ganmo line within the Oba-Oke space of Osogbo, Osun State. This incident prompted extreme structural injury to the tower, leaving it twisted and bent, with insulators at a harmful angle of 65° to 70°. The broken and bent tower T328 additionally affected towers T327 and T329 on both aspect.
Despite the precarious situation of T328, it was mentioned that the cables remained supported by the bent towers, stopping energy outages. The Osogbo Region of TCN needed to perform emergency restore works on the affected towers to forestall their collapse. However, the tower continues to be awaiting the everlasting reconstruction that might gulp some huge cash that might have been used for one thing else.
“TCN has reported these incidents to security operatives, including the military, the police, the Department of State Services, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. A visit was also made to the Oba of Oba-Oke to emphasise the need for community collaboration in protecting installations within his domain. Additionally, more local vigilantes have been employed to monitor the facilities,” Mbah defined.
In the Benin Region of TCN, on July 19, Tower T449 at Oluku group alongside the Ihovbor/Benin 330kV transmission line was reportedly vandalised, with the three legs and supporting members minimize off.
On July 25, Tower T72 alongside the Benin/Egbin 330kV transmission line, additionally in Oluku Community, Benin, was vandalised, with the 4 legs of the tower (B6N) additionally minimize off. TCN’s engineers strengthened the tower legs to forestall collapse.
It was added that within the Port Harcourt Region of TCN, vandals attacked Towers T98 and T99 alongside the Ahoada-Yenagoa 132kV line on July 29, inflicting them to break down within the Igbogene Community of Bayelsa State. On August 3, Tower T97 alongside the identical line route additionally collapsed attributable to instability from the adjoining collapsed towers, compounded by storm and wind results, it was said.
Recently, transmission traces within the North East, below the Bauchi Region of TCN—stretching from the Jos 330kV Transmission Substation to Bauchi, by means of Gombe, Damaturu, and as much as Maiduguri—have suffered a number of vandalism assaults at numerous factors. Additionally, a number of different much less extreme acts of vandalism have additionally occurred.
The Federal Government has reiterated the necessity for collective motion in opposition to vandals of energy installations of any sort, because the TCN mentioned it stays dedicated to working with communities, safety businesses and vigilantes to safeguard energy installations.
The TCN appealed for the assist of all Nigerians to curb the assaults on electrical energy installations. It was noticed that only some arrests have been normally made in reference to vandalism. Many mentioned this might be as a result of the act is normally carried out at evening.
Also, TCN towers are largely put in within the bushes and locations inaccessible to safety brokers, particularly attributable to an absence of enabling gear.
However, one other college of thought believed that the safety brokers weren’t doing sufficient to analyze and arrest the culprits.
During a go to to the TCN headquarters lately, the TCN Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Sule Abdulaziz, appealed to the Chairman of the House Committee on Power, Victor Nwokolo and his members to assist efforts in opposition to vandalism, highlighting that a number of TCN towers have been vandalized since June, regardless of the corporate’s collaboration with safety businesses to guard its transmission infrastructure.
The remark from the TCN boss is a sign that the vandals have overwhelmed the safety brokers.
Alluding to this, Nwokolo questioned what number of safety brokers can be deployed to look at over the towers.
“How many policemen are you going to draft to look at on energy traces? It’s not every thing that the federal government can do for us. To the vandals, they need to give consideration to state-owned infrastructure. It’s solely in Nigeria that somebody will see a tower and nonetheless go and vandalise it.
“Every Nigerian, high and low, must rise up to the occasion and give protection to the infrastructure. We should not sit, fold our arms and watch someone cut off the cables without confronting the fellow and expect to have electricity,” the committee chairman said, regretting that vandalism stays a significant subject within the sector and it has set the ability sector again in an enormous approach.
Recently, the TCN mentioned it could require roughly N1.7tn to finish about 129 ongoing electrical energy tasks nationwide whereas it wants about N600bn to settle right-of-way claims. Unfortunately, even when these tasks are accomplished, the vandals are on the prowl to throw the cash down the drain.
Minister blames cartel
To the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, the people behind these assaults on energy belongings are cartels who didn’t need the ability sector to succeed. This group of individuals, he alleged, are importers of energy mills. Adelabu questioned how unusual individuals may afford IEDs to dismantle towers.
The minister said that the saboteurs minimize off transmission traces, and demolished transmission towers, substations and transformers.
“For about two or three weeks, the entire North East was in darkness, just because they went to bring down all the transmission power lines. What can we do? And we must use our taxpayers’ money to even replace all these,” he anxious.
Blaming the so-called cabals and cartels for the assaults on energy infrastructure, he said, “If you make the ability sector work on this nation, some individuals will consider that you’re snatching their each day bread from them. We have confronted these limitations, we’ve got confronted these challenges and sabotage within the final 12 months. People don’t want the ability sector to succeed as a result of it’s a supply of livelihood for all of them.
“The majority of the ability generator corporations all around the world manufacture for Nigeria; 80 to 70 per cent of their gross sales are from the Nigerian market due to our sheer inhabitants and the non-effectiveness of our energy sector.
“Let me tell you, I did not want to say this on air, but I think I will mention it. I received threat calls several times. I am the 49th power minister in this country in my 60 years of Nigerian existence. The past administration also had good intentions, but probably they were bullied. They were intimidated,” Adelabu narrated.
He opined that his predecessors have been pressured to return to their cocoons.
“Do you think it takes just an ordinary person to go and blow up a power transmission substation with dynamite and sophisticated equipment? Do you think it takes an ordinary person to go and pull down a transmission power line, a 330kV high voltage line, or a 132kV high voltage line? It’s an organised crime. So it’s a cabal, it’s a cartel,” he pressured.
Showing resistance and resilience, Adelabu mentioned he wouldn’t be intimidated.
“But let me tell you, we are all Nigerians. We will not run away from ourselves. We will confront ourselves,” the minister declared.
In conclusion, the deliberate destruction of energy infrastructure by vandals is a major menace to Nigeria’s efforts to attain nationwide electrification and financial improvement. Despite the federal government’s efforts to improve previous infrastructure and improve energy technology, the actions of those vandals proceed to hinder progress, plunging communities into darkness and undermining the nation’s progress.
The TCN has reported quite a few incidents of vandalism, and the ability minister has blamed cartels and saboteurs for the assaults. The authorities, safety businesses, and residents have to work collectively to guard energy installations and forestall these legal actions. The combat in opposition to vandalism requires collective motion, and solely by means of cooperation and willpower can Nigeria overcome this problem and obtain a steady energy community.