Rivers communities face blackout as hoodlums steal cables, conductors

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Rivers communities face blackout as hoodlums steal cables, conductors

Elele Alimini and Ndele communities in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State have been thrown into darkness, following attacks on installations belonging to the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company by some hoodlums.

The hoodlums destroyed 15 electricity poles and carted away over 3,000 metres of wires and other accessories.

The DisCo was said to be conducting major rehabilitation work on the line from Elele Alimini to Ndele and other communities in neighbouring Ahoada East LGA. It however noted that many communities in the two LGAs might be affected by the resultant blackout.

Our correspondent who visited the scene of the incident observed that the hoodlums after destroying the poles dismantled and carted away the wires, the insulators and other accessories.

The Technical Head, PHED, Thomas Otonye, who conducted journalists round the damaged installations, said the incident occurred on Thursday, and that the damage was huge.

He stated, “One is about 15 poles and 16 span length going by our calculation. One span is about 60 to 70 metres. So, 70m multiplied by 16 is 1,120 metres of conductor, multiplied by three, which is over 3,300m of conductor.

“That’s just for the conductors. The port and accessories are not inclusive; what we call the insulators, the tie straps, the channel iron and all that. I’m only talking about conductors. The damage is huge.”

He explained that the incident would negatively affect the restoration of electricity in several communities in the area, including some parts of Ahoada East LGA.

He added, “I got a call in the morning from the supervisor in charge of this job that the line had been vandalised between Elele-Alimini and Ndele. The aim of this line is to restore power to Elele up to Ahoada and as it stands now since the line has been vandalised there is going to be a lot of delay restoring power up to the point where we want to restore power to.”

He said the recent attack was about the fifth in a row since the company embarked on the project in the area. He added that it was difficult to immediately estimate the value of the damage done. “All I can say is that it’s in millions, because the last one that happened affected 20 poles, and when we did the estimate, it was about N21m for the cost of materials alone, but for this one, I can’t say.”