How transformer vandals make millions in Yobe
In Yobe, many aggrieved residents of Damaturu, the state capital, are relying on their own power generating sets. At the PHCN headquarters in Damaturu, Sunday Trust ran into hapless revelations about the vandalisation of 20 transformers between June and early August 2011. Engineer Haruna Umar, business manager of Damaturu district of PHCN, said that the […]
In Yobe, many aggrieved residents of Damaturu, the state capital, are relying on their own power generating sets.
At the PHCN headquarters in Damaturu, Sunday Trust ran into hapless revelations about the vandalisation of 20 transformers between June and early August 2011.
Engineer Haruna Umar, business manager of Damaturu district of PHCN, said that the organisation installations have been under severe attacks from criminals who are perceived to be skilled electricians. He said more than 10 transformers were out of circuits.
He said vandalism is more rampant in Maiduguri, but with the security situation presently there, vandals decided to shift base to Damaturu and have destroyed over 20 transformers within the space of sixty days.
“They invaded more than 20 sub stations and cart away installed cables and other valuables which are mostly copper conductor cables and drained transformer oil in one sub-station. This always throws the town into darkness while residents unknowingly put the blame on PHCN.”
PHCN official who crave anonymity, told Sunday Trust that there was a vandal arrested in Maiduguri who confessed that a special market exist operating between the hours of 4:30 am and 5:30 am, where all vandals converge at the ready market and conduct copper business within the space of one hour.
“Internationally, the price of copper conductor is very high. Police arrested a vandal who confessed that he stole cables. In fact, he was later released. So, these are our predicaments because the hardship they cause the people is not commensurate with the punishments.”
He further gave an instance on how they operate “We were given energy to convert into naira and our target for the last month was N34 million, but we got only N15 million. That N15 million cannot pay our staff salary and take care of our operational expenses. So, we must go out to look for the difference somewhere as the headquarters stopped augmenting the difference. The cost of damages recorded in each sub-station is close to N1 million, and averagely, we need about N300,000 to replace a set of cables in each transformer they have stolen if we are to manage them.
We have customers close to 20,000 but less than 6,000 respond to monthly payments and the only language people understand here is disconnection, else nobody cares to settle his bills. Somebody will build a house of N10 million but cannot pay a bill of N10,000”, the official explained.
He said they were grossly under billed and accrued much of technical and non technical losses, so instead of installing new equipments with all the accessories, they use the same resources to service stolen ones which invariably means not satisfying their customers due to the permanent deficit situations.
“Those irresponsible citizens are sabotaging the efforts of government and the PHCN in providing essential service to its responsive citizens,” he said
But some residents who vowed not to pay their monthly bills claimed that the illegal job cannot be carried out neatly without the connivance of PHCN officials even though the district manager argued that none of their staff was ever found in such an irresponsible act.
Malam Mikhail Abu, a resident of Jerusalem in Damaturu, bemoaned the poor electricity supply in the town when he spent two weeks in perpetual darkness
“I relied on my generating set throughout the week, so why should I pay for non-supplied electricity bill? Besides, if PHCN can be fair and respond to my question, what gauge are they using to charge most of the people that live around here who don’t have metres in their houses? I pay over N1,000 every month, ” he explained
Malam Sani, who sells soft drinks at Gashua Road, told Sunday Trust how he intended to close down the business and concentrate on his provision store.
“My business is really suffering because of power outage in Damaturu. The price of soft drinks is fixed and we cannot increase it to avoid customers protest. The amount we spend on diesel for our generating set is outrageous; nobody wants his business to suffer. That influenced my decision to close down.”
Why vandals destroy the transformers
Investigations by Sunday Trust has shown that they melt transformers for ornamentals and jewelleries and also sell them at international market where they have so much value.
An investigation by our correspondent shows that in Damaturu Sunday market, a raw ring of single core copper cable sold at N150 and most of it is used by local black smiths in making their products more attractive
Baba-Kaka Lawan is a black smith who produces swords, tea kettles, and knives. He told Sunday Trust where he gets the copper from.
“I buy the copper from a village in Borno State. The old man sells raw copper and smith copper rings, bungles and earrings. But I only use it for decoration so that the products price will be different. I usually sell a dagger of black iron for N1,000, but it costs me more producing copper decorated ones. Therefore, I sell between N1,800 N2,000,” he said
He said that some people are of the belief that copper guards their new born children against evil spirits. For those with the vague idea and confidence, they bundle the copper rings neatly and tie it round their children’s waist.
It’s apparent that transformer cables are now on a circular flow. That is, from the dangerous electricity impulse supplying current into the residents homes to their ears, wrists and finally to their children waists so as to protect them from evil spirits.