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By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc, AEDC, yesterday, disclosed that vandals have stolen underground cables worth over N5 million supplying electricity to Central Areas of the nation’s capital.

The utility in a statement by its Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Donald Etime expressed serious concerns over the high frequency of incidents of vandalism to its electrical assets and installations across its franchise area.

The company explained that these incidents have seriously impeded the company’s efforts to deliver stable and reliable power supply to its customers.

Mr. Etim noted that “The surge in cases of vandalism within our franchise area has become quite worrisome, especially so because these vandals lately; increasingly utilize unfathomable methods to perpetrate their criminal acts. This technique upgrade to their evil trade has emboldened the thieves to attack more of urban assets and installations of late, thereby affecting higher customer densities.

“Recently, 185 meters of XLPE underground cable was carted away at the Central Business Area, Abuja FCT, valued at over N5 million at just one location out of several others that have been similarly affected across our franchise. The multiplier effect of these damages runs into billions of naira”.

He stated that AEDC will not relent on its efforts to ensure that it provides adequate uninterrupted power supply “hence the company’s continued investments in network upgrades, refurbishment of faulty transformers, procurement of new transformers as well as the construction of new feeders and lines to relieve existing ones”.

He further added: “On the Customer side of things we have gone mobile with our metering drive by physically taking meters out to customer cluster locations and getting them metered within 24 hours. There are at least 27 such locations currently operational within our franchise today, excluding our formal offices.

“We have launched multiple payment channels, including USSD short codes, that allow our customers to buy power at zero commission. We have also launched a verify-staff platform that enables customers, for their safety, to quickly verify AEDC visitors to their premises by simply inputting the said staff’s ID card number into a link connected directly to our website. Detailed information on how these innovations work can be found on our AEDC website, kindly visit www.abujaelectricity.com for these and other goodies”.

Etim also disclosed that as part of efforts to curb the menace of vandalism on its network, “the Management of AEDC has strengthened its collaboration with security agencies such as Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, Nigeria Police Force, Community leaders, and even recently set up a Civilian JTF component.

“These collaborations have resulted in increased security patrol exercises, aggressive community sensitization, several arrests and successful prosecutions. The company is also working towards deploying a remote monitoring system for locations with high incidences of vandalism”.