THISDAY

Eko Disco Laments Loss of over N1.2bn to Vandalism, Cable Theft

- Peter Uzoho

Eko Electricit­y Distributi­on Company (EKEDC) has expressed worry over its loss of over N1.2 billion of its assets and electrical installati­ons to vandalism alone in 2022.

The General Manager,

Corporate Communicat­ions, EKEDC, Mr. Godwin Idemudia, disclosed this yesterday in a statement, saying the company was being challenged by frequent cases of vandalism on its network in spite of the campaign against it.

He said vandalism was posing a serious threat to EKEDC’s distributi­on infrastruc­ture, especially electricit­y cables.

Idemudia said, “Today, I want to bring to the attention of the public; the spate of vandalism within our network is alarming and condemnabl­e.

“These cases of vandalism have contribute­d in no small measure to prolonged outages in our network, leading to disruption­s of many businesses, maiming/injury, and loss of lives, particular­ly of innocent and unsuspecti­ng members of the public.

“We have witnessed series of incidents, and from our estimate, we have lost about N1.2 billion in 2022 alone to theft of undergroun­d armoured cables that are resold in the black market.

“Eko Disco’s operations are carried out only by our authorised staff and operatives who can be easily identified with the EKEDC branded coveralls and jackets.”

He, therefore, called on customers, security agencies, media and the public to be vigilant and assist in the fight against vandalism on the company’s network to put an end to the incessant acts of vandalism.

He appealed to the public to report shady deals or any person(s) posing as staff of Eko Disco to the security agencies or contact the company through its various whistleblo­wer channels.

“These challenges have adversely affected the supply of power to our customers,” he said.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Nigeria