The Islamic State of the West African Province (ISWAP) terrorists have destroyed another 330KVA high tension transmission line along Maiduguri-Damaturu Highway. The explosion also killed one personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) according to witnesses.
A counter-insurgency alert focused on the Lake Chad region revealed that the incident occurred in the early hours of Thursday, December 28, 2023, at about 0700hours between Yanayakiri-Garin Kuturu in the Jakana general area.
In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter), a source, Zagazola Makama, said “The terrorists also planted an explosive around the vicinity which killed one NSCDC personnel”.
It would be recalled that on December 21, the terrorists vandalised two transmission towers around Katsaita village causing failure of power supply in parts of Borno and Yobe states respectively.
Our correspondent had reported that the incident resulted in bringing down the 330kV transmission tower which pulled down tower T373 along the same transmission line route and caused the failure of power supply to parts of the North-East, namely, Yobe and Borno States.
TCN engineers spotted the fallen towers while monitoring the line to determine the reason of the power outage, and the villagers agreed they heard a tremendous explosion before the tower fell.
The engineers had discovered traces of explosive used by the vandals in bringing down the towers after conducting a thorough investigation. “TCN has dispatched one of its contractors to the incident location to begin the restoration of the gearbox towers damaged by the vandals.
“TCN firmly condemns the occurrence and apologises for the inconveniences caused to the governments and people of Yobe and Borno States, and promises to do everything necessary to rapidly re-erect the towers and restore power to the affected areas.
“The company has made an urgent appeal to host communities to join it in the fight against vandalism and the vital preservation of Nigeria’s communal asset, electrical infrastructure,” the TCN had said at that time.