PHCN Cautions Against Erection of Buildings Under Transmission Towers

Oct 10, 2011 – PHCN Cautions Against Erection of Buildings Under Transmission Towers

The PHCN Transmission Company of Nigeria has said that incessant erection of buildings and sand dredging activities under electricity transmission towers are the biggest threats to the operations of the company.

Mr Olushola Akinniranye, Executive Director, Transmission and Services Provider, on Saturday in Lagos, said that a warning had become imperative because the dredging of sand under transmission towers often exposed the towers to collapse.

Akinniranye warned sand dredging operators to stop their activities, stressing that it would take the organisation more than 18 months to replace or repair any fallen part of the network across Nigeria.

He said that the nation would witness blackouts in the near future if urgent actions were not taken to stop the illegal activities and the destruction of PHCN’s transmission lines.

“We have embarked on various sensitisation and enlightenment campaigns on the need to avoid building illegal structures and dredging sand along transmission towers.

“Our staff are threatened and beaten when they try stopping evacuators under the transmission lines.

“It is pertinent to note that electric power grid system of any nation is the backbone for socio-economic development.

“This ugly activity calls for national re-think and prompt collective action in order to speedily reverse the trend with its negative socio-economic consequences before the towers collapse,’’ Akinniranye said.

According to him, the ongoing illegal activities under the transmission towers pose serious danger to PHCN’s 330KV transmission lines across Nigeria and the company is ready to arrest and prosecute saboteurs.