By Linus Aleke, Abuja
The Transmission Company of Nigeria said that four of its towers along the Jos – Gombe 330kV transmission line have been vandalized.
The General Manager (GM), Public Affairs, Ms. Ndidi Mbah, in a statement, disclosed that the vandalisation occurred on Monday at about 3:32pm.
Mbah said that when the 330kV transmission line tripped, its operators attempted to restore it to service but it tripped again, prompting the dispatch of TCN lines men to trace the line in order to detect and rectify the fault.
“While fault tracing, TCN’s engineering crew discovered that towers 288, 289, 290, and 291 were vandalised and some tower members were carted away. Also, the towers had equally collapsed as a result of the incident.
Presently, bulk power supply to Gombe, Yola, and Jalingo Substations have been disrupted, affecting bulk power supply to parts of Yola and Jos Electricity Distribution Companies’ franchise areas,” the GM said.
She added that to mitigate the effect of the incident on electricity consumers affected by the incident, TCN was trying to first back feed Gombe through its 132kV transmission line from Bauchi and subsequently Ashaka, Potiskum, Damaturu, and Billiri/ Savannah.
The company, Mbah said, would do everything possible to ensure restoration of supply to the affected areas, while efforts would be made to reconstruct the four vandalised towers.
