Blackout hits North East as vandals destroy transmission line [PHOTOS]

Electricity blackouts hit parts of the Northeast as vandals brought down towers T372 and T373 on the Gombe-Damaturu 330kV Synchronous Condenser transmission line.

Ndidi Mbah, General Manager, Public Affairs, Transmission Company of Nigeria, confirmed the incident in a statement on Friday.

According to the statement: “The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby states that one of its towers, Tower T372, around Katsaita Village in Yobe State, was vandalised yesterday (December 21), bringing down the 330kV transmission tower, which pulled down Tower T373 along the same transmission line route.

“The incident, which occurred at about 9:18 pm caused power supply failures in parts of the North East, namely, Yobe and Borno States.

“While patrolling the line to ascertain the cause of the cut in power supply, TCN engineers discovered the fallen towers, and the villagers confirmed they heard a loud explosion before the tower came down. On closer investigation, the engineers found evidence of explosives used by the vandals to bring down the towers.

“Presently, TCN mobilised one of its contractors to the incident site to commence the reconstruction of the transmission towers damaged by the vandals.”

TCN strongly condemns the incident.

While regretting the inconvenience caused to the government and people of Yobe and the Borno states, it pledged to do all possible to quickly re-erect the towers and restore power supply to the affected areas.

“We are again making an urgent appeal to host communities to collaborate with TCN in the fight against vandalism and the necessary preservation of power infrastructure nationwide, which is our collective asset,” the statement reads.

However, the company did not state when the reconstruction process would be concluded for power to be restored to the affected region.

DAILY POST recalls that TCN earlier in September said vandals destroyed 109 transmission towers nationwide in nine months.