(It?s in our enlightened interest to guard against vandalism of power infrastructure)

It is unfortunate that as the nation remains overburdened with the quest for improved and steady power supply, some unpatriotic elements are hell-bent on sabotaging government efforts thus throwing their fellow citizens into hardship. Last week, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) Director-General, Sule Abdulaziz, revealed that the constant vandalism of the company?s power infrastructure are deliberate acts of economic and political sabotage. Although Sule also said the company?s Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, designed to enhance real-time monitoring and control of power infrastructure, is now 69 per cent complete, we hope the authorities will take his allegation seriously.

For the past few years, critical stakeholders in the power sector have been worried about the activities of vandals. Last year, residents of Bayelsa State were without electricity supply for several weeks after vandals destroyed 13 towers on the Ahoada-Yenagoa 132kV Double Circuit transmission line. The state Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai, said at the time that it was an ?attack on the social and economic wellbeing of the residents of the state and a sabotage on government?s investment drive?. But the problem is not restricted to Bayelsa State, it is national. So endemic is the incidence of vandalism of electricity equipment that drastic action should be taken to contain the menace.

Unfortunately, this is a common story across the country as managers of the DisCos make strenuous efforts to cope with equipment vandalism which indeed has become a major obstacle to their businesses. The immediate consequence of these acts of vandalism is that life is made more difficult for law abiding citizens who are thrown into darkness due to erratic and unreliable power supply occasioned by the activities of the vandals. Also, the nation?s economy is seriously threatened as industries are shut down and employees laid off because companies cannot meet production target as many operate below their installed capacity. The epileptic nature of the power sector has contributed largely to the stagnation in the national economy.

Last Friday across the country, several parts were left in darkness, as the national grid abruptly lost over 2,000 megawatts, resulting in the second supply disturbance for the year 2025. While we lament this deplorable situation, it must be stated that the menace of electricity equipment vandals persists because of the existence of some ?market? for the stolen items. Obviously, no criminal could be foolish enough to take the risk of stealing whole transformers and powerline cables without having an assured off-taker market somewhere ready to buy such equipment. The menace is now an organised crime, involving insiders, including public officials and their collaborators. Sometimes stolen transformers and other equipment turn up for resupply by contractors within the sector.

There is no doubt that the incidents of theft and equipment vandalism are really costing the nation huge sums of money. What is particularly worrying is that the security agencies have a long history of tough words that have been of no effect as the criminally minded people within our society get more and more emboldened. It is therefore incumbent on all the critical stakeholders to come up with a solution that will work. But the bottom line remains that we must protect these vital assets of the nation from the grip of criminals. It is in everyone?s overall interest.

We therefore call on the host communities to help by way of real-time intelligence and information to the security agencies whenever they notice these criminal activities. They should consider it a patriotic duty to join in the fight against the vandalism of critical national assets in the power sector. (THISDAY Editorial)

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