Power outage hits Maiduguri as vandals blow up TCN towers again

Residents of Maiduguri and its environs will experience power outages as vandals again have destroyed the recently rebuilt T193 and T194 towers along the Damaturu-Maiduguri 330kV Single Circuit Transmission Line.

The general manager of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Ndidi Mbah, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

TCN said the incident on its towers was done around 10:15 pm on Tuesday, resulting in its 150MVA power transformer at Molai Substation and 330kV transmission line supplying bulk supply to Maiduguri tripping.

“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 10:15 pm, 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.

“After the line tripping, efforts were made by TCN engineers to close the Molai-Damaturu line to enable bulk transmission of electricity, which failed repeatedly. Early today, however, 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.

“The area affected by this incident is Maiduguri and its environs. 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 a view to deciding on the best approach to ensuring the temporary restoration of the power supply while a contractor is mobilised to rebuild the two transmission towers,” the statement reads.

DAILY POST recalls that on December 28, 2023, towers T193, T194 and T195 were destroyed with improvised explosives.

In February 2024 alone, TCN said it recorded five incidents of facility vandalisation.