From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, has lamented that insurgency and vandalism are major threat to transmission towers in the country.
The TCN consultant, Oyofo Sule made this disclosure in Abuja, yesterday, at a world press conference organised by Civil Society Organizations, Budget Implementations, Assessment, Evaluation and Monitoring Committee.
Sule debunked the statements making round social media that TCN had inflated prices of contracts .
He said “The attention of the Management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has been drawn to a publication alleging that specific contracts termed Emergencies and were not awarded in line with the procurement guidelines.
“TCN has over 1,80OKM of 330kV and 132kV high voltage transmission lines, And transmission towers traversing the entire nation, and several through very Difficult terrains including swamps, forests, areas prone to flooding which cause Rapid erosion of tower bases, and natural disasters.
“Some of these towers and lines pass through land mines in insurgency-prone areas, which is inevitable as the lines must convey electricity to citizens. These difficult terrains negatively impact transmission towers and also make it easy to vandalize the towers and lines underscoring the need for emergency procurement.
“Also, the scourge of insurgency and vandalism threaten transmission towers earing the high tension lines and when these towers are attacked, they must be repaired almost immediately to forestall the total collapse of the tower.”