The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has reported the unfortunate recurrence of vandalism, leading to the destruction of two key transmission towers in the country’s northeast.
This incident comes just a week following the towers’ recent reconstruction.
In a public announcement made by TCN spokesperson, Ndidi Mbah, on Wednesday, it was revealed that the affected towers, part of the Damaturu-Maiduguri transmission line, were targeted by vandals the previous night.
Nairametrics had previously covered the restoration of these towers as a part of the broader efforts to rehabilitate the electricity infrastructure in the region, which had suffered prolonged outages.
Originally sabotaged by vandals in April, the destruction of these towers had resulted in extensive power cuts, leaving many in darkness for an extended period.
TCN, in its latest statement, lamented the repeated acts of vandalism that have once again compromised the freshly restored towers.
“The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, hereby states that two of its towers, T193 and T194, along the Damaturu -Maiduguri 330kV Single Circuit Transmission Line have again been destroyed by vandals.
“The incident, TCN believes happened at about 10:15 pm, yesterday night, when the 150MVA power transformer at Molai Substation tripped at the same time as the 330kV transmission line supplying bulk power to Maiduguri from Damaturu Transmission Substation.
“After the line tripping, efforts were made by TCN engineers to close the Mulai – Damaturu line to enable bulk transmission of electricity, which failed repeatedly.
“Early today, however, TCN lines engineers along with security operatives patrolled the line and discovered that towers 193 and 194 along the 330kV transmission line were brought down using an explosive device, whose fragments are scattered at the site of the incident,” Mbah said.
