Residents of Gombe, Yola, and Jalingo are currently experiencing a power outage due to the destructive act of vandals who targeted four towers along the Jos-Gombe transmission line, as confirmed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

Ndidi Mbah, the general manager of Public Affairs at TCN, issued a statement on Monday revealing the incident. The towers were vandalised around 3:32 pm on that day.

As a result, the bulk power supply to Gombe, Yola, and Jalingo Substations has been disrupted, impacting the electricity supply to parts of the franchise areas of Yola and Jos Electricity Distribution Companies.

TCN’s engineering crew, dispatched to trace and rectify the fault after the 330kV transmission line tripped, discovered that towers 288, 289, 290, and 291 were vandalized. Some tower members were stolen, and the towers had collapsed as a consequence of the incident.

In response to the incident and to minimize the impact on affected electricity consumers, TCN is working on back-feeding power to Gombe through its 132kV transmission line from Bauchi, followed by Ashaka, Potiskum, Damaturu, and Billiri/Savannah.

The TCN spokesperson assured that every effort will be made to restore power supply to the affected areas, while simultaneously working on the reconstruction of the four vandalised towers.

It is worth mentioning that Abuja experienced a similar power outage in February due to the vandalisation of TCN towers.