One hundred and eighty power substations have been vandalised within the last six months in the Benin Zone of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Mr Effiong Umoren, has said.

The BEDC CEO, who made this known during an interactive session with journalists, at the weekend, in Benin City, said vandalism of PHCN installations, which he described as hurting to the industry and customers’ huge indebtedness to the company, were among the biggest challenges facing the company.

Besides, he said customers in the zone which comprised Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti states owed the company about N12.8 billion.

Umoren, an engineer, said acts of vandalism were in the form of removal and carting away of copper cables as well as upriser cables, draining of oil from distribution and power transformers, and stealing of aluminum conductor and line members such as disc, pot insulators and channel iron among others.

Others included meter by-pass and energy theft in the form of meter theft, illegal direct connections, tampering with meter and refusal to pay electricity bill as at when due.

He said the activities of vandals had led to loss of power and left great cost of replacement of the stolen parts.

Umoren, however, pointed out that, in line with its avowed commitment to improve service delivery, the company had added six injection substations with a total capacity of 60MVA in the last one year.

THE TRIBUNE

And somebody will say that 24hrs light will become reality in Nigeria