BREAKING NEWS, Power
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The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission is probing the cause of electrocution of the three persons who died within the jurisdiction of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Jul 25, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT |
THE Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, is to thoroughly investigate the cause of another electricity accident which resulted in the death of three persons and more than five people injured recently. This happened when a transformer allegedly exploded in a densely populated suburb of Lugbe area of Abuja.
Anthony Akah, acting chairman, NERC, said appropriate sanctions would be imposed against the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC, if it was found guilty of breaching existing operational procedure in its supply of electricity to the suburb. Akah, however, directed the Disco to immediately take up the medical care for the injured victims of the accident. He told reporters that AEDC had reported three deaths and other people with several degrees of burns from the accident.
Leading an investigative team to the area which has a very poorly planned electrical infrastructure and populated with more than 5,000 residents, Akah said he was there to commiserate with families of the victims and also assess the damages. It was gathered that the conductor of the exploded transformer had snapped, causing power surge and the accident in the community that is less than two kilometres from the Federal Housing Authority, FHA, Estate in Lugbe.
Realnews reports that most of the households within the suburb were illegally connected to AEDC’s distribution grid using poor quality cables and equipment. Also a large chunk of the settlement, including a mini-market also stretched across the double 330KV/132KV transmission lines of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, which supply electricity from two power stations in Geregu, Kogi State – the National Independent Power Plants, NIPP, Geregu and Geregu Power Plant.
One of the residents told journalists that the original settlers of the suburb had been compensated by the government before the transmission towers were erected but many chose to remain and even built houses under the high tension zone. The resident also stated that the AEDC was aware of such anomaly but had continued to supply power to and generate revenue from customers in the suburb.
He said the Disco did not consider cleaning up the poorly-wired suburb. Another resident, Sunny Adu narrated how the incident occurred. “We were just around the transformer when the conductor at the pole snapped and went into flames. A house behind it was affected as Peter Haruna’s pregnant wife and child sustained serious burns. Three persons including a 22-year-old boy, Joseph Terver died, over five others sustained serious burns from over seven houses some metres away from the transformer,” added Adu.
It was also learnt that most of the survivors were paying for their medical treatments, but NERC had asked Abuja Disco to assume the payment and also recompense those who had made such payments. “We want you to take all the survivors to the National Hospital or the best medical facility for immediate treatment today (Saturday) and not Monday. You must also refund to them the expenses they have incurred so far,” Akah told AEDC’s director Regulatory Affairs, Abimbola Odubiyi.
He also told the victims to contact NERC if AEDC failed to obey its directive to take up their medical treatments. “AEDC said they have gotten the survivors’ names and have taken over their medical attention from today. Their officials will follow them to the hospitals of their choice. Our investigation team will come back and conduct an assessment into what happened and develop strategies to prevent the reoccurrence.
“We will investigate it and if we found that AEDC failed to provide safe power, we will apply the appropriate sanction and ensure compensation is duly paid. We will also ensure that AEDC improve on the infrastructures supplying power to your community.”
The AEDC had earlier been fined millions as compensation by NERC for similar occurrences in two other areas under its service.
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