Residents of Bayelsa State are to experience a five-week total blackout due to extensive damage to the Owerri-Ahoada-Yenagoa 132KV Double Circuit Transmission Lines, NewsNGR can report.
Speaking as a guest while featuring on a Bayelsa-based radio station in Yenagoa, the Managing Director of the Bayelsa Electricity Company, Engr. Olice Kemenanabo, confirmed that it would take approximately four to five weeks to restore power to the state due to extensive damage to the transmission lines.
NewsNGR recalls that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had on August 2, announced that two transmission towers, T98 and T99 along the Ahoada/Yenagoa 132kV line in the Igboghene community of Bayelsa were destroyed by vandals.
TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs Mrs Ndidi Mbah, in a statement she issued in Abuja, said that the incident caused the collapse of both towers, cutting off power supply to Bayelsa including TCN’s Yenagoa Sub-station and the Gbarain Power Station.
But Kemenanabo, who is also the Board Chairman of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC), said that the procurement process for a contractor to repair the 35 to 50-meter-high towers, which collapsed due to vandalism, was typically time-consuming.
He noted that due to the state government’s commitment to expedite the repairs, TCN had already begun assessing the damage while waiting for its headquarters to prepare a technical report on the extent of the destruction.
Kemenanabo explained that the estimated timeframe for power restoration was due to the complex nature of erecting the towers, which he said involved dismantling the three affected towers, followed by the procurement of replacement parts and the gradual rebuilding of the structures from the base to the top.
He noted that arrests had been made in connection with the vandalism, and investigations were ongoing, urging the state government and its Ministry of Environment, along with security agencies, to conduct raids on nearby scrap dump sites to recover stolen materials from the towers.
The PHEDC chairman, however, called for patience and understanding while the restoration process lasted, and urged Bayelsans to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities around power installations to the authorities.