The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has attributed the country’s frequent power grid failures primarily to vandalism.
At a community awareness event in Benin, General Manager Charles Iwuamadi revealed that attacks on power infrastructure have surged by over 30% in five years, directly causing multiple collapses.
He also raised alarms about the dangerous practice of building homes and businesses directly beneath high-voltage power lines, warning that it poses severe safety and health hazards.
โVandalism is directly proportional to the number of system collapse. A greater number of times when we have grid collapse, it is a result of vandalism. If not for the way we have been managing the system, the number of collapses would have doubled”, Iwaumadi said.
Iwuamadi stressed that the national grid is a fragile, interconnected system; an attack on a single transmission line doesn’t just cause a local outage but can plunge the entire nation into darkness.
He added a grave warning for those living underneath: they are risking instant death from a snapped line, alongside other serious health hazards.
โHuman beings and structures cannot withstand the impact of a 330kV line. It is not only illegal but deadly,โ he cautioned.
The TCN Boss stated that the company would rather educate communities than punish them,though tearing down buildings remains a possibility.
He thanked the Umelu community for being peaceful and asked them to keep working with TCN.
The meeting was one of many across the country aimed at stopping vandalism and keeping the lights on.
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