The Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), has set up a task force to check vandals of its property after a loss of over N108 million in August and September.
Speaking at the inauguration of the team, the acting spokesperson of the company, Bala Sani, said the company was alarmed by the frequency of vandalisation.
He said the task force, which has representatives from the Police, State Security Service, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and the local hisbah and vigilante groups, is headed by Yusuf Aminu, a retired lieutenant-colonel of the Nigerian Army.
The group was charged with stopping the rampant vandalisation of electricity transformers and other property of KEDCO.
Sani explained that the task force would routinely go on security patrols, including to market places and other locations of suspected buyers of vandalised public electricity equipment.
He said the team would also try to check energy theft and the activities of touts and quacks who parade themselves as KEDCO staff to collect unauthorised fees from consumers.
“Right now, we have 100 vandalised transformers undergoing repairs.This is because the vandals steal transformer oil and cables in them, rendering them ineffective and useless”, Sani said.
He said the most notorious areas for the activities of vandals were Sabon Gari, Shahada, Bompai and some Government Reserved Areas of the sprawling Kano city.
Sani lamented that four out of every ten transformers with problems were as a result of vandalism.
He said the company has lost almost one N1bn to vandals in 2016.
