TCN Announces Destruction Of New  Towers Along Damaturu – Maiduguri Line 

    Mohammed Shosanya

The Transmission Company of Nigeria,TCN,says vandals have destroyed the electricity towers, T193 and T194, along the Damaturu -Maiduguri  330kV Single Circuit Transmission Line.

Ndidi Mbah, the General Manager (GM), Public Affairs of TCN,who conveyed this in a statement on Wednesday,disclosed that the incident occured at about 10:15pm, Tuesday night.

She said:”The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, hereby states that two of its towers, T193 and T194, along the Damaturu -Maiduguri  330kV Single Circuit Transmission Line have again been destroyed by vandals.

“The incident, TCN believes happened at about 10:15pm, yesterday night, when the 150MVA power transformer at Molai Substation tripped at the same time as the 330kV transmission line supplying bulk power to Maiduguri from Damaturu Transmission Substation”.

According to her,after the line tripped, efforts were made by TCN engineers to close the Mulai – Damaturu line to enable bulk transmission of electricity, which failed repeatedly.

Early on Wednesday,she said, TCN lines engineers along with security operatives patrolled the line and discovered that towers 193 and 194 along the 330kV transmission line were brought down using an explosive device, whose fragments are scattered at the site of the incident.

She said,the area affected by this incident is Maiduguri and its environs.

She added:”Recall that on the 28th of December, 2023, towers T193, T194 and T195, were destroyed on 28th December, 2023 using similar improvised Explosives IEDs. Two out of the towers in question are the towers affected by yesterday’s vandalism attack, which were rebuilt after that incident.

“TCN is currently assessing the situation with the view to deciding on the best approach to ensuring the temporary restoration of the power supply while a contractor is mobilized to rebuild the two transmission towers.

“We will continue to do everything possible with the assistance of security operatives to protect our transmission towers and we are also calling upon the government and well-meaning Nigerians to join in the fight against the destruction of our collective national assets” .