5 convicted for vandalizing electricity supply facilities
The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) said yesterday that it had secured five convictions of suspects within the five southeast states of its coverage area in the last one week.
The company also said that the convictions are part of the over 50 cases of vandalising of its facilities which it has recorded in the zone since January 2015.
The company’s Head of Communications, Mr. Eugene Aniowo who made this known in a statement issued in Enugu, said that the affected persons were convicted for
various degrees of offences ranging from tampering, destroying and stealing of armoured cables, transformer oils, transformers, meters, injection substations, conductors and other electricity supply equipment by the Federal High Court sitting in Enugu, Abakaliki and Owerri.
Aniowo said the convicts include Uduma Ama Iro, Ewa Ikechukwu and 21-yearold Tochukwu Igwe who were found guilty and sentenced to six, five and five years in jail respectively by the Federal High Court in Abakaliki, presided over by Justice M.A. Onyetenu.
Convicted by the Federal High Court sitting in Owerri is Mr Femi Ajewole, who was sentenced to three years imprisonment without any option of fine for vandalism, which the court described “as economic crime against the people”.
It was gathered that in Enugu, the Federal High Court sentenced Mr Bestman Ekuma to three and seven years of imprisonment for vandalism. Justice D.V Agishi, who handed down the verdict, said that the sentence would run concurrently.
Aniowo praised the court for the judgments, saying it would serve as deterrent to persons who might want to engage in actions that might cause obstructions in the distribution of electricity to the people.
He reminded the people that “tampering with EEDC installations is a punishable
offence under section 516 of the criminal code”, stressing that it is unlawful to disconnect and remove EEDC cables and subject customers to utter darkness all in the bid to make money.