TCN Tower Vandals Plunge Three States into Darkness

The recent incident involving the destruction of four towers along the Jos-Gombe transmission line, as reported by TCN’s general manager of public affairs, Ndidi Mbah, has resulted in power outages in Adamawa, Gombe, and Taraba states. The vandalism occurred at 3:32 pm on Monday, disrupting the bulk power supply to Gombe, Yola, and Jalingo Substations, consequently affecting parts of Yola and Jos Electricity Distribution Companies’ franchise areas.

In an official statement released late Monday night, TCN confirmed the vandalism of the four towers along the Jos-Gombe 330kV transmission line. Following the incident, efforts were made to restore the power supply, but subsequent tripping led to the dispatch of TCN linesmen to locate and rectify the fault in the transmission line. During the fault tracing process, TCN’s engineering crew discovered that towers 288, 289, 290, and 291 were vandalized, with some tower members missing and the towers themselves collapsing due to the damage caused.

Currently, there is a disruption in the bulk power supply to Gombe, Yola, and Jalingo Substations, which is impacting the power supply to certain areas within the franchise of Yola and Jos Electricity Distribution Companies.

In order to minimize the impact on electricity consumers affected by this disruption, TCN is working on back-feeding Gombe through its 132 kV transmission line from Bauchi, followed by Ashaka, Potiskum, Damaturu, and Billiri/Savannah.

The TCN spokesperson has assured that every effort will be made to restore power supply to the affected regions while simultaneously focusing on the reconstruction of the four vandalized towers.

According to OBASANJONEWS24, Abuja experienced a blackout in February due to the vandalization of TCN towers.