86 towers vandalised in 2024, 26 destroyed completely—TCN  

The Transmission Company of Nigeria has said 86 towers were vandalised in 2024, with 26 completely brought down. The General Manager of Transmission Service at TCN, Ali Sharifa, made the disclosure on Thursday in Keffi during a presentation on infrastructure vandalism at a workshop organised for power correspondents. He said that 2024 and 2025 were the most trying time for TCN as a responsive public utility due to vandalism of its transmission line infrastructure by the non-state actors. He said, “A total of  86 towers were vandalised in 2024 with 26 towers completely down, which put affected states to total darkness. These vandalism spans across Abuja, Bauchi, Enugu, Shiroro, Kano and Port-Harcourt regions. While in the first and second quarters of 2025  a total of 42 act of vandalism were recorded affecting a total of 178 towers.’’
He said that besides the activities of vandals, natural disasters also  hindered the free flow of electricity to the grid as TCN recently recorded along Kainji-Birnin Kebbi 330kV SC (International)line. He added, “ Six towers T306, 1307, T308, T365, T366 and 1367 collapsed in May due to wind-storms and torrential rainfall. In  the same May, Apir-Lafia-Jos 330kV DC Line Tower T137 had a twist (partial collapse) due to wind-storm and torrential rainfall.’’ Mr Sharifa said that sabotage, political and economic reasons were responsible for the vandalism. He listed the the effect of TCN’s infrastructure vandalism to include disruption of power supply across the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry, as the generated power from the generation station could not be wheeled to the distribution ends. “Other effects of vandalism include the  increment of  significant costs by the company due to repairs, replacement and need for increased security measures to address vandalism. The company’s grid expansion efforts are hindered by acts of vandalism to pay contractor’s invoices used on repairs And there is also the concern with public safety whenever transmission infrastructure is vandalised,” he said.
He noted that the company was reaching out to locals where the transmission lines were prone to vandalism, adding that they were engaging with the  Office of the National Security Adviser after the series of vandalism in 2024, “TCN reached out to ONSA for the protection of vulnerable transmission lines against vandalism. Some critical lines have been selected as pilot schemes for which state-of-art technology will be deployed to monitor and deter future vandalism. Sensitisation and sponsored programmes, jingles on both social and print media including radio and television stations against vandalism of TCN assets are reaching far and wide as Nigerians are now fully informed that TCN property is their property.’ Mr Sharifa said that sensitisation led to the arrest of vandals who were now facing prosecution. NAN