A total of 108 power transmission towers are being destroyed by vandals in various parts of the country between January 2022 and September this year, according to data obtained from the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN.
The Federal Government has described the development as sabotage as the vandals destroyed 132kV double circuit power transmission lines, 330kV double circuit lines, and carried out soil excavation that threatened transmission towers.
The vandalism of transmission towers occurred in the Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Enugu, and Benin regions, though the government, through TCN, had contracted out the repairs of some of the vandalized towers.
It had also deployed in-house engineers of the transmission company to work on other vandalized towers.
An analysis of data from the transmission company showed that 27 towers were vandalized in the Abuja region during the review period, while nine towers were destroyed in the Lagos region.
The Kano region recorded the highest number of destroyed transmission towers, as 52 towers were vandalized in the region during the review period, while 10 towers were shattered in each of the regions of Enugu Benin.
Nigeria’s power grid had collapsed twice in September, throwing the country into widespread blackout in both cases.
TCN stated that in 2023 alone, it had recorded over 10 incidents of vandalism at different degrees across its regions, especially attacks on its transmission towers.
The TCN management condemned the activities of these vandals, stating that their nefarious acts negatively impacted the grid expansion efforts of the company and are considered saboteurs.
In addition, resources that would have been used to further improve the grid infrastructure would now be used to replace the vandalized towers.
TCN appealed to host communities to join hands in the fight against vandals, admonishing them to report suspicious movement around transmission towers to security operatives or the TCN office in the vicinity.
