As many as 14 communities in Jos, the Plateau State capital, have been without electricity for months due to the activities of vandals.
The affected communities, spread within the Jos-Bukuru metropolis include Bukuru, Gurra Top, New Abuja, Sabon Barki, Furaka, Kwang, Tudunwada, Apollo Crescent and Dung.
A resident of New Abuja, John Ishaya, said the theft of transformers has been frequent in the last six months.
“Thieves will vandalise the transformer, we will gather money and fix it, in less than a month they will vandalise the distribution cables again. The entire community is in darkness as we speak. Everyone is tired of contributing money to fix transformers.”
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Fidelis Victor, a resident of Kwang in Jos North, said, “We have been in darkness for weeks now, only to discover that it is our transformer that was vandalised. This is very sad; we live in the city but don’t enjoy electricity services.”
Another resident in Furaka, Derick Anazodo, said, “Energy transformers have become targets of attack by criminals in this community. Almost everyone here is using power generator to light up their house because our transformer was vandalised and the community is yet to fix it. We buy fuel for our cars and buy fuel to run our generators.”
The Head, Corporate Communications of Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC), Dr Friday Elijah, who confirmed the incidents to Daily Trust, said the company was getting frustrated by the activities of vandals.
“These criminals removed critical components of the power transformers, especially the copper coils, and threw the entire community into total darkness.
“The incidents have been rampant in the last one month. Our electric transformers have been vandalised in 14 communities,” Elijah said.
The Plateau State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has however confirmed the arrest of two suspects in connection to vandalisation of transformer in Ganawuri community.
The command’s public relations officer, DSC Longbit Chrisantus, told Daily Trust that the command would henceforth intensify its surveillance on such criminals.