Personnel of the Nigerian Army have reportedly attacked a substation belonging to Eko Electricity Distribution Company (Eko DisCo) over power outage, escalating tensions between military personnel and power distribution companies in Lagos.
The purported assault came just a week after officers and men of the Nigerian Air Force from the Sam Ethnan Airforce Base, Ikeja, stormed the headquarters of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (Ikeja DisCo) in Alausa and brutalised staff members and journalists, while property worth billions of naira was vandalised.
The attack happened around 1.00 a.m. on March 14.
Eko DisCo’s Head of Corporate Communications, Babatunde Lasaki, condemned the incident as unfortunate, noting that attacks on DisCos were becoming a recurring issue due to the Federal Government’s failure to take action against perpetrators of previous assaults.
He emphasised that the company’s legal team reported the incident to the police, while efforts were underway to petition the Chief of Army Staff (COAS, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Power, and other relevant authorities.
“The soldiers attacked our office at night. They went to one of our stations in Badagry and picked two of our staff. Though they released them later in the day, the fact that they went there and abducted our workers is unfortunate. Later on Friday, they went there again, threatening that we should restore their supply. Our workers tried to explain to them that it was a fault and that the outage was not deliberate, but they continued to harass our workers,” he said.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan, expressed shock over yet another military attack on a DisCo within a week, highlighting the growing trend of military invasions of utility companies.
He noted that while they were still reeling from the brutalisation of Ikeja Electric staff and the vandalism of its head office by the Air Force, the Army invaded Eko DisCo’s Injection Substation in Badagry at 1.00 am on March 14.
He stated that the Commanding Officer, Lt-Col S. Lawan, had been properly informed about the ongoing Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) upgrade in Agbara.
Nigerian Army’s Director of Information, Maj-Gen Onyema Nwachukwu, described the incident as a minor misunderstanding between soldiers and Eko DisCo workers following a fire outbreak.
Nwachukwu added that the Commanding Officer of the unit set up a board of inquiry to investigate the cause of the fire outbreak.
