Vandals damage gearbox towers, causing a blackout in Borno and Yobe

TCN, Nigeria’s transmission company, has revealed that vandals had demolished two transmission towers that transmit energy to portions of the North East, leaving Borno and Yobe without power.

The company in a statement by its General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah on Friday said one of its towers, tower T372 around Katsaita Village in Yobe State was vandalised on Thursday, bringing down the 330kV transmission tower which pulled down tower T373 along the same transmission line route.

According to Mbah, the incident, which took place at about 21:18 caused the failure of power supply to parts of the North East, namely, Yobe and Borno States.

She disclosed that 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 in bringing down the towers.

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

“TCN strongly condemns the incident and regrets the inconvenience caused to the government and people of Yobe and Borno States and pledges to do all that is possible to quickly re-erect the towers to restore power supply to the affected areas.

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