No fewer than four vandals were apprehended  by men of Nsugbe Central Vigilante group while attempting to vandalise a 500KVA Distribution  Substation, property of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), located near Central School Nsugbe, Anambra State,

The suspects

The vandals, identified as Ifeanyi Okeke, 18 years, leader of the gang and an ex-convict; Ifeanyi Udekwe, 22 years; Emeka Mokwe, 22 years and Kosisochukwu Mokwe, 17 years, were immediately handed over to the Police for further investigation. In a statement sent to Vanguard, the company stated that in the course of interrogation, the vandals confessed to have been responsible for vandalizing two other EEDC Substations in May, 2018.

The substations are: Akpalagu 500KVA and Amumu 500KVA, where they carted away seven 500MM2 intermediate cables. It stated that the leader of the gang, Ifeanyi Okeke disclosed the name of the dealer whom they sold the items to, and the Police are already working at capturing the cable dealer. He equally confessed that he co-opted other three members of the gang to assist him carry the cables to the buyer’s location as the cables were very heavy. The four were arraigned before the Chief Magistrate Court (Court 2), Otuocha, for the dispensation of justice on Thursday, 24th May, 2018.”

In a related development, the Enugu Police Command, last month, nabbed two vandals identified as Emmanuel Nwigwe and OkechukwuOnu, indigenes of Isu Community in Ebonyi State, for allegedly stealing and vandalising electrical installations belonging to EEDC in Oji River, Enugu State.  According to the Head of Communications, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), Mr. Chukwuemeka Ezeh, “The menace of vandalism of electrical installations belonging to EEDC has continued unabated. This impacts negatively on our operations, as funds meant for other projects like metering, transformer installation, network improvements, etc are diverted into the replacement of vandalised materials.

“We therefore commend the efforts of various vigilante groups, the Nigerian Police, Civil Defence as well as other security agencies, for their efforts in fighting this ugly trend. We equally appeal to our esteemed customers to join hands in protecting these installations.”