Presidential Villa, other Abuja areas to experience outage as vandals attack electricity assets

The seat of the Nigerian president is among the areas to be affected by power outages in Abuja after vandals damaged and stole transmission cables, an official has said.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Friday said its 132kV transmission line and underground cables taking power to the central area and of Abuja and its environs have been vandalised, causing power outage.

The TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, made this known in a statement.

Ms Mbah said the vandalised 132kV underground cable transports bulk electricity to TCN’s 132kV central area transmission substation, which then supplies power through distribution feeders to Abuja Electricity Distribution Distribution Company (AEDC) for onward supply to its customers in the central area and environs.

She explained that the theft carried out around the Millennium Park axis of Abuja, affected over 60 per cent of the power supply to the Nigerian capital. She said the vandals carted away “40 meters of 1x500mm² XLPE conductors on the 2 numbers 132kV transmission lines.”

She listed areas affected to include Maitama, Wuse, Jabi, Lifecamp, Asokoro, Utako, Mabushi, and parts of the Presidential Villa, which houses President Bola Tinubu and his deputy, Kashim Shettima.

She noted that the TCN engineers have already been mobilised to the site of the incident to repair the vandalised cables.

“We enjoin Nigerians to be vigilant in observing and reporting suspicious activities to security operatives. We must work together to protect our transmission equipment and installation. This is very crucial to the development of the nation’s power sector,” she said.

Vandalism has recently become a significant threat to Nigeria’s power infrastructure.

In March 2024, the TCN said that one of its critical infrastructures, the Shiroro-Katampe 330 Kilo Volt (kV) transmission line, was vandalised, making it the fifth incident between February and March.

Reacting to the frequent vandalism of power infrastructure across Nigeria at the time, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, recommended the death penalty for persons who steal power infrastructure.

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Unfortunately, the government has yet to prosecute arrested vandals as they are usually released on bail by the police, according to the TCN.

Last December, the TCN said its 330kV Shiroro-Katampe transmission line was vandalised.