Over the last six months, three distribution companies have lost N4.7 billion due to the rise in vandalism. The development has contributed to increasing grid collapse over the last several weeks.
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) said it has lost the estimated sum of N4 billion to vandalism of its assets as acts of vandalism reportedly escalated within its network in the last six months.
The managing director/CEO, of the company, Dr. Tinuade Sanda, disclosed that the spate of vandalism within the network escalated in the last few weeks, especially, in Mushin, Yaba, Surulere, Ijora, Apapa, and Lagos Island.
Sanda, at a media briefing, said the company has written to the regulatory authorities, including the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the Nigeria Police and other security agencies about the situation.
She complained that apart from the electricity supply gap from the national grid, due to challenges such as shortage of gas supply, a drop in power generation and recurrent system collapse of the national grid, vandalism is creating service disruption within its franchise area.
Also, the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) says it loses over N50 million monthly to vandalism through stolen cables, damaged transformers and other network infrastructure. That adds up to N300 million over the last six months.
A statement by a spokesperson for the company, John Ayodele, said the activities of vandals were crippling power distribution to the company’s esteemed customers.
“On June 29, at night, unknown civilians and armed men clad in police and civil defence uniforms carted away IBEDC 33kV underground cables at Mokola Round-about in Ibadan, Oyo State
“The stolen cables feed Agodi Injection Substation, where Government House, the State Secretariat, Agodi and majority of Bodija area and thousands of other urban customers are serviced,” he said.
Mr. Ayodele said that such was one of the various instances of the nefarious activities of vandals within their franchise.
He appealed to IBEDC customers to jealously guard electrical installations within their environments to avoid being plunged into unexpected darkness.
The spokesman said the company could not afford to replace vandalised installations now.
“We implore all residents and customers to report any act suspected to be vandalism to the nearest Police Station, Civil Defence and the Department of State Service,” he said.
Mr. Ayodele said that IBEDC does not operate at night, and activities that occur after 8:00 p.m. should be suspected and reported accordingly.
IBEDC has in recent times reported cases of stolen cables, damaged transformers, and other network infrastructure.
Similarly, the management of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company has lamented the rising cases of vandalism of power supply infrastructure in its franchise which is taking a serious toll on the company’s operations. The concern was raised in a statement by the company recently.
The statement said 158 distribution sub-stations were vandalised across the four franchise states of the company between January and June this year.
The chief engineering and technical services officer of the company, Bello Musa, quoted in the statement said the company lost N238, 701,800:65 worth of equipment.
Similarly, the company lost N147,953,449:01 in expected revenue during the period under review, totaling N386 million over the period.
He said some of the prolonged outages and service disruptions suffered by the customers are as a result of vandalism and theft of power supply assets of the company by some selfish and criminal elements in the society.
He described the vandalism of power supply assets as a despicable act of sabotage and heinous crime against the society.
“The destruction of critical national assets like power supply infrastructure by a few unpatriotic elements is a despicable act of sabotage, a mindless criminality and the pinnacle of irresponsibility which we must collectively fight as a society,” he said.
Musa stated that 54 distribution sub-stations out of the 158 vandalised have been repaired and supply restored to the affected customers while efforts are being made to bring the remaining back to service.
He called on security agencies and the prosecuting authorities to bring full weight of the law against the perpetrators of this crime.
