Oscarline Onwuemenyi
18 January 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Network for Electricity Consumers Advocacy of Nigeria (NECAN) has lamented the growing rate of deaths from electrical accidents across the country.
The Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) had disclosed that 113 were killed and about 77 others injured from 146 electrical accidents that happened across the country in 2017.
The National Secretary, NECAN, Mr. Uket Abonga, who stated during a recent appraisal of the nation’s power sector, that the actual number of electrocutions in 2017 was 366, also blamed the increasing deaths on the dilapidated state of power infrastructure in the country.
He said the group’s investigations have revealed that a higher percentage of victims were electricity consumers, while there were also few recorded cases of staff of the operating Electricity Distribution companies, popularly known as Discos.
According to Mr. Abonga, “NECAN decries the high level of electricity related accidents leading to the deaths of many Nigerians and loss of property in 2017. About 366 Nigerians were said to have died through electrocutions and property valued at several hundreds of millions of Naira lost.
“Our findings reveal that of the 366 deaths recorded in 2017 86.8 per cent of the victims were electricity consumers, while the remaining 13.2 per cent were that of staffs of the electricity companies in the industry, this high incidence of deaths is alarming and unacceptable.”
He added that, “The investigations carried out by NECAN reveal that many of the accidents that occurred in the preceding year in the sector can be attributed to man-made factors, which include inadequate knowledge, information and ignorance on the part the consumers and operators, system protection equipment failures.
“In some cases total absence of protection devices, poor and aging transmission network lines, aging distribution networks which used to be replaced, poor response to complaints of faulty facilities and lines by staff of the transmission and distribution companies.
“Others are non adherence to safety rules and guidelines, non enforcement of safety standard by regulatory agencies, continued existence of very poor and substandard materials, systems and distribution networks, unwillingness of the distribution companies to improve on the assets acquired.”
Abonga said, “We therefore call on the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), whose mandate is to certify and ensure standardization of all equipment, devices and others in use by the industry to step up their game. Every effort must be made by licensed operators to improve on the dilapidated and ageing systems and networks which pose danger to electricity consumers in Nigeria.
“Moreover, the companies whose networks have killed Nigerians must be made to pay adequate compensation to the families of the diseased. With the wanton loss of lives through insurgency, herdsmen killing, and others the nation cannot afford further avoidable loss of lives through electrocution.”
Meanwhile, the NECAN scribe has commended the efforts of NEMSA in carrying out regular inspection of electricity transmission and distribution networks across the country to detect the ones in good condition and those that are not for the safety of lives.
“We hope the NEMSA boss and his team will not only detect those life threatening systems and networks but will liaise with other sister regulatory agencies to ensure that erring licensed electricity companies are sanctioned accordingly,” he said.
