By ABAH SUNDAY, Abuja
The transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has announced that as it was working on reconstructing and restringing the four vandalised towers in the North-East to meet the 27 May time line of restoring bulk power supply in the area, three more towers along the Biu – Danbua 132kV transmission were vandalised, with 16 spans of conductors stolen.
A statement signed by TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, to that effect also disclosed that tower T540 along the Makurdi – Jos 330kV double circuit transmission line was on Monday morning discovered vandalised and dismembered.
“It is unfortunate to note that while TCN is working on reconstructing and restringing the four vandalised towers, three towers along the Biu – Danbua 132kV transmission line were also vandalised with 16 spans of conductors stolen. The towers, which have all collapsed are towers T1690, T1691, and T1692,” TCN said, adding that it had mobilised a contractor to commence their reconstruction following the discovery on Friday.
TCN also alleged that tower number T290, one of the four new towers erected by TCN contractors along the Jos – Gombe 330kV transmission line, collapsed during the cable stringing process at about 7am on 27th May, 2024 while the contractor was stringing the cable on the last tower supposed to enable the final jointing of the power cable in time for the line to be energized same day.
“Despite of the security challenges in the area, TCN contractors and some of our engineering staff worked tirelessly to fast-track the project, doing all that was humanly possible to meet the time-line, to the extent that the contractor, TCN engineers accompanied by security operatives consistently left the site by 10pm in the night and resumed work at 6am every day,” TCN explained.
It regretted that the collapse of the fourth tower during restringing was a significant setback, given the extensive efforts already put in to ensure that Monday’s power restoration timeline was met.
“Our contractor is currently dismantling the collapsed tower members, to enable its reconstruction and final restringing of the cable.
“We reiterate our commitment to restoring normal power supply through the distribution companies serving the North-East and other areas affected by vandalism.
“There is however an urgent need for everyone to join hand with TCN in protecting our collective assets by being vigilant and reporting any suspected acts of tower and line vandalism promptly,” TCN said.