Extended Power Outage as Vandals Damage New Northeast Towers

By Adedapo Adesanya

Vandals have again attacked power transmission towers taking electricity to the northeast of Nigeria, leaving Maiduguri, the capital of Yobe State, and its environs in darkness weeks after the structure was completed.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), in a statement, disclosed that two of its towers, T193 and T194, along the Damaturu -Maiduguri 330kV Single Circuit Transmission Line, have again been destroyed by vandals.

TCN said it believes that the attack happened at about 10:15 pm, Tuesday 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”.

The company explained that “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.”

“The area affected by this incident is Maiduguri and its environs,” the company noted.

It will be recalled that on December 28, 2023, towers T193, T194 and T195, were destroyed using similar improvised Explosives IEDs.

“Two out of the towers in question are the towers affected by yesterday’s vandalism attack, which were rebuilt after that incident”, it added.

TCN said it is currently assessing the situation with the view to deciding on the best approach to ensuring the temporary restoration of the power supply while a contractor is mobilized to rebuild the two transmission towers.

“We will continue to do everything possible with the assistance of security operatives to protect our transmission towers and we are also calling upon the government and well-meaning Nigerians to join in the fight against the destruction of our collective national assets,” it added.