Public safety incident
Details
This is an expired event!
Event title
Nigeria - 18 electricity towers damaged in five days despite surveillance
Source
Severity
Mid
Event date (UTC)
2025-01-20 10:51:28
Last update (UTC)
2025-01-20 10:51:29
Area range
Multiple states / regions wide event
Address/Affected area(s)
Rivers, Abia, Kano and Federal Capital Territory
Despite the involvement of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and alleged surveillance monitoring of electricity infrastructure, 18 transmission towers have been destroyed in the past five days.
The towers, which may require about N1.9 billion to fix, were vandalised in Rivers, Abia, and Kano states between January 9 and 14, 2025, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said yesterday.
Vandals had, on Friday, thrown the Presidential Villa, in Abuja, into darkness as rising cases of theft of electricity cable disrupted power supply.
A 32KV transmission line and underground cables taking power to central parts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and environs were vandalised around the Millennium Park, just about one l kilometre away from the Presidential Villa.
The prevailing development posed significant threats to the nation’s power grid and socio-economic development.
In a release shared by the General Manager in charge of Public Affairs at TCN, Ndidi Mba, the General Manager of Transmission for the Port Harcourt Region, Emmanuel Okpa, disclosed that on January 10, routine patrols revealed extensive damage to towers 171 through 181 and tower 184 along the 132kV Owerri/Ahoada line. By January 14, vandals had targeted towers 146, 147, and 149, removing base brackets and jeopardising the towers’ stability.
In Abia State, the Head of the Lines Department, Azuh Lucky, confirmed the theft of bolts, nuts, and structural components from towers 160 to 162 on the Alaoji/Umuahia 132kV line. This incident occurred on January 13 while the line was undergoing repairs.
Similarly, in Kano, towers 105, 106, and 107 along the Katsina-Gazoua 132/33kV transmission line were critically damaged by vandals on January 9. This left the towers structurally compromised, increasing the risk of collapse.
TCN engineers also discovered vandalised 132kV underground transmission cables near Millennium Park in Abuja on January 17. The incident disrupted the power supply to Abuja’s central area and surrounding neighbourhoods.
In 2024 alone, vandals destroyed 119 transmission towers, further weakening the nation’s power grid, which recorded 12 collapses and 32,8000 megawatts of load loss last year.
Mbah emphasised the devastating impact of these acts of sabotage on the company’s grid expansion plans.
According to her, constant repairs to vandalised installations are draining financial resources and hindering efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s electricity network.