The Transmission Company of Nigeria has said its tower number 388 along the Jos-Bauchi 132 Kilo Volt (kV) single circuit transmission line has been vandalised, resulting in its collapse.

The TCN’S General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, said that the incident was suspected to have occurred on February 1 at about 10:20 p.m.

According to her, the incident led to power outages in Yobe and Borno states.

Mrs Mbah said, “Following a line trip in Jos, and bearing in mind past experiences associated with line tripping in that axis. The General Manager, Transmission of Bauchi Region, Mr Tijjani Ahmadu, invited the police anti-bomb squad and the Department of State Services to accompany the TCN line crew and investigate the transmission line to find the cause of the tripping. Upon inspection, the team uncovered remnants of detonated explosives by vandals by the tower legs, which had exploded and caused the tower to collapse.’’

According to her, the incident mirrors a recent and similar act on December 21, 2023, which brought down towers T372 and T373 along the Gombe-Damaturu 330kV single circuit transmission line.

She said that during the incident, a security operative was killed and power supply to Yobe and Borno states were affected.

Mrs Mbah said that the line and towers from the December incident were fully reconstructed and energised on February 2.

She added that TCN had engaged one of its contractors on an emergency basis to quickly mobilise to the site of the incident to commence the reconstruction and restringing of the affected line and tower.

She noted, “TCN is determined to keep working at rehabilitating and further expanding the nation’s bulk power transmission network to ensure consistent bulk power transmission. It is pertinent to note that the continuous vandalism and theft of power equipment is a constant setback to the ongoing implementation of the transmission system expansion plan.

“This is because funds earmarked for grid expansion are usually diverted as a matter of emergency to repair vandalised power infrastructure, and sometimes to avert grid collapse.’’

(NAN)