Hoodlums Vandalise PHED’s Facilities on East-West Road

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) has again lamented loss of millions of Naira over recent vandalism that occurred on its ongoing lining facility on Emohua section of the East-West Road in Rivers State.

The Managing Director of the PHEDC, Dr. Benson Uwheru, during recent working visits to security agencies within its area of coverage had pleaded for partnership in protection of personnel and assets to enable staff of PHED carry out their duties without intimidation and interference.

Uwheru pointed out that if there is assured security on the staff and the facility, they can be able to function very well and ensure efficient power supply.

Meanwhile, THISDAY that was present at the scene of the current attack on the PHED facility along Elele Alimini, Emohua yesterday, observed a huge damage, as over 15 lined poles were destroyed while new cables were looted away.

It was also observed that the incident happened while some of the officials of the disco were lining the cables to connect power to communities within areas that have been suffering lack of power supply.

The Head, Technical of PHED, Mr. Thomas Otonye, who spoke to THISDAY at the scene of incident, explained that the vandalism took place where the PHED is rehabilitating lines to power communities within the area.

Otonye explained that 16 spans of cable, thousands of metre conductor, pots and the accessories, and channel irons were looted away by the hoodlums.

He said: “What happened here is that right in the morning I got a call from my supervisor that is laying poles and cable on this East-West Road that the line has been vandalised between Elele Alimini and Ndele section of the East-West Road.

“The aim of the lining is to restore power all through Elele-Alimini to Ahoada. And as it stands now since the line has been vandalised, there is going to be delay in restoring power to the point we planned to restore power.

“This is about the fifth time they have been vandalised. Prior to this time, vandalism has been occurring between where we have an existing line, because the idea is just to rehabilitate the line. So we have taken note of what we need to put on ground.

“Before this vandalisation, we thought it would be ok for us to power by the time we finish this area. So this is the first time this is happening on the new section we have worked on for about 15 spans.”

Otonye regretted that the incident has cost the company huge amount of money spanning through millions of naira. “As it stands, with the system material evaluation cost, all I can say is that what PHED lost to the vandalism is in millions of naira. Because the last one that happened about 20 poles like this, material cost loss estimated at N21 million for that one.

“The vandalised cable is about 16 spans going by our calculation, so about four thousand metres of conductor was vandalised, the pot, the accessories are not there, what we call the insunator, the tristate, the channel iron, others, were looted by the hoodlums.”