No fewer than 16 communities have been thrown into darkness in the North Western part of the country, as a trailer carrying a container drove into the base of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)’s tower T16 located in Gunduwawa Village, Gezawa Local Government Area of Kano State.
TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, who disclosed the development in a statement on Monday, said the incident which happened about 9.28am on Sunday resulted in the lost of about 16.6 megawatts.
Mrs. Mbah explained that the trial re-closure of the Kano–Hadejia 132kV Transmission line to enable continued bulk power supply failed, prompting the immediate dispatch of a patrol team to survey the line.
She said, the team found that a trailer truck carrying a container had hit tower T16 situated in Gunduwawa and destroyed two legs of the tower causing it to buckle and fall.
“The incident caused the tripping of the line, cutting off supply as the tower fell on the container and hit a nearby residential building damaging a part of it. Although no life was lost, the incident has been reported to Gezawa Divisional Police Station and the driver has also been detained.
“Unfortunately, this has put Hadejia, Gumel, Gagarawa, Nguru, Mallammadori, Birniwa, Kafin-Hausa, Auyo, Guri, Kaugama, Taura, Garki, Maigatari, Babura, Kirikasamma, Machina Local Government Areas in Jigawa and Yobe States in darkness, and presently, there is no alternative source of bulk power supply to two of TCN’s substations, the Gagarawa and Hadejia substations.
“This means that the affected areas will not have supply until the tower is repaired.
“TCN pledges to do everything possible to quickly dismantle the damaged tower, re-erect a new one and restring the lines to enable the resumption of bulk power supply to the two substations to enable the DisCos offtake power for its customers within the affected areas.
“A contractor has already been contracted to reconstruct the tower, he is expected to mobilize to the site of the incident today”, he said.
