Electrical accidents across the 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) killed 58 persons, including electrical staff and non-staff, in 2022, with 46 others suffering major injuries.
This is according to the monthly safety ranking of DisCos and TCN in the power sector published by the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA).
While the highest death occurred in April, with 15 fatalities, the highest major injuries of 11 persons were recorded in May, 2022.
Last year started with nine fatalities caused by electrical accidents in January: three persons died under Benin DisCo, one under Eko, two under Jos and one under Kaduna, Kano and Port Harcourt DisCos. The NEMSA report also showed five persons sustained major injuries.
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There were no reports for February and March. The April report had 15 deaths being the highest in the year under review. One Jos DisCo staff died while 14 persons perished with six injuries under Jos, four in Benin, two persons died under Port Harcourt and Eko DisCos’ installations. There were four major injuries recorded under Jos, Abuja and Yola Discos’s networks.
In May, 2022, five persons died during Ibadan, Kaduna and Port Harcourt DisCos’ installations, with 11 major injuries reported.
Among the nine fatalities in June, one Ikeja DisCo staff died while eight persons died under installations belonging to Benin, Eko, Ibadan, Kaduna (2), Kano, Port Harcourt and Yola DisCos with eight major injuries recorded around the networks.
The figure dropped to four in July involving non-staff of Abuja, Eko, Kaduna, Kano DisCos along with four other persons that sustained major injuries.
Seven deaths occurred in August as one Kano DisCos staff died and six people were killed in Abuja, Ibadan (three fatalities), Kano and Port Harcourt DisCos as well as seven other major injuries recorded.
There were six deaths in September involving two staff (Enugu and Kano Discos) and four people (Kaduna, P/H, Kano DisCos and TCN) as well as four major injuries caused by electrical accidents
In October, electrical accidents killed one staff of Abuja DisCo, killed four people under Benin, Eko and TCN network with another seven injured.
NEMSA reported three deaths in November with one involving a staff of Abuja DisCo and one non-staff death each under Jos DisCo and Kaduna Electric network. Three other persons were injured and there were reports of 200 bad networks among the 11 DisCos.
According to NEMSA, many of the electrical accidents occur due to system protection equipment failures, poor response to monitored networks and use of substandard materials, among others.
By Simon Echewofun Sunday & Linda Ifeachor
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