Yuletide Blues: Boko Haram Leaves Borno, Yobe Communities In Darkness
- Destroys electricity towers as residents lament holiday blackout
BY VICTOR BUORO – If remedial measures are not taken immediately, the residents of some communities in Borno and Yobe states will be spending the Yuletide into complete darkness.
No thanks to the criminal activities of suspected Boko Haram insurgents who destroyed an electricity tower that currently supplies power to the affected areas.
Coming barely one year after the insurgents destroyed electricity towers and cut off Maiduguri, the Borno State capital from the national grid for several months, the latest attack is already giving residents nightmarish feelings of suffering unwanted blackout with likely heightened criminality in the days ahead.
Reports indicated that the power line attack occurred at about 11:40pm on Thursday around Katsaita village in Damaturu Local Government Area of Yobe State.
According to eyewitnesses’ accounts by some residents of the community, a thunderous explosive sound was heard around the tower axis when the incident happened as many people scamper for safety not knowing what the initial blast was all about.
The General Manager, Public Affairs of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Ndidi Mba, who confirmed in incident, said the T372 tower was vandalised by the bandits.
Mba said the attack caused the “bringing down the 330Kva transmission tower, which pulled down tower T373 along the same transmission line route.”
Assuring that the TCN has mobilised for one of its constructors to commence reconstruction of the destroyed towers, he said; “TCN strongly condemns the incident and regrets the inconvenience caused to the government and people of Borno and Yobe states and pledged to do all that is possible to quickly re-erect the towers to restore power supply to the affected areas”.
The TCN Spokesman also appealed to the host communities to cooperate with the power company in the fight against vandalism and the necessary preservation of power infrastructure nationwide, noting that the facility “is our collective assets”.
