The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), said its tower number 388 on the Jos-Bauchi, 132 Kilo Volt (kV) Single Circuit transmission line had been vandalised, resulting in its collapse.
Mrs Ndidi Mbah, TCN’S General Manager, Public Affairs, in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, said that the incident was suspected to have occurred on February 1 about 10:20 p.m.
According to her, this had led to power outage in Yobe and Borno states.
”Following a line trip in Jos, and bearing in mind past experiences associated with line tripping in that axis.
”The General Manager, Transmission of Bauchi Region, Mr Tijjani Ahmadu invited the police anti-bomb squad and the Department of State Services (DSS) to accompany the TCN line crew and investigate the transmission line to find the cause of the tripping.
”Upon inspection, the team uncovered remnants of detonated explosives by vandals by the tower legs, which had exploded and caused the tower to collapse,” she said.
According to her, the incident mirrored a recent and similar act on Decrmber 21, 2023, which brought down towers T372 and T373 on the Gombe-Damaturu 330kV Single Circuit transmission line.
She said that during the incident, a security operative was killed and power supply to Yobe and Borno states was affected.
Mbah said that the line and towers from the December incident were fully reconstructed and energised on February 2.
She said that TCN had engaged one of its contractors on an emergency basis to quickly mobilise to the site of the incident to commence the reconstruction and restringing of the affected line and tower.
”TCN is determined to keep working at rehabilitating and further expanding the nation’s bulk power transmission network to ensure consistent bulk power transmission.
”it is pertinent to note that the continuous vandalism and theft of power equipment is a constant setback to the ongoing implementation of the transmission system expansion plan.
” This is because funds earmarked for grid expansion are usually diverted as a matter of emergency to repair vandalised power infrastructure, and sometimes to avert grid collapse,” she said.
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