Just as residents of the Maiduguri metropolis were beginning to see a glimmer of light, suspected members of the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), more commonly referred to as Boko Haram, destroyed four high tension power towers along the Maiduguri-Damaturu Road on Friday, September 17.
The capital of Borno State has been without power for nine months.
Some reports blamed the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) for the attack.
Last week Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) workers were seen fixing the utility’s power lines within and outside Maiduguri, giving residents hope that they would at last see light at the end of the tunnel again.
But a source, who asked to remain anonymous, told RNI Reporter Hadiza Dawood that he saw the destroyed towers while returning to Maiduguri from Damaturu on Saturday.
The towers were destroyed at Garin Kuturu village, 2km from Auno, which is about 23km west of Maiduguri.
He said the government should be thinking about solar power since it was abundant and forget about trying to reconnect the state to the national grid.
He said the state had suffered enough hardship.
Bulama Babagana, a resident, said he was happy to see the TCN workers fixing the utility’s power towers and had been looking forward to an end to the power outage.
“Unfortunately, insurgents have destroyed more towers and that probably means electricity will not be restored in Maiduguri any time soon,” he said.
Babagana said it was very difficult to work or do anything without power and that many people had been severely affected by the constant outage.
Halima Muhammed, also a resident of Maiduguri, said that the people in the city had suffered more than enough. She said the government was not doing enough to deal with the power outage.
“The government needs to make the city and surrounds more secure so that we can live normally. It must take responsibility and stop shamming the public. End the insurgency and insurgents in Borno State and fix the electricity,” she said.
Another resident, Mohammed Abubakar, said Maiduguri had been in total blackout for “about nine very long months”.
“Enough is enough. It is difficult to live without power. And it has raised the prices of petrol, water, gas, ices block and cold drinks.”
He said the only hope for the state capital was the gas plant project, which had recently been approved and contracted by the federal government. But he did not know when the project would be completed.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) started building the gas plant a month ago to provide electricity to the state.
On January 25, members of the JAS had blown up two transmission towers near Jakana, a town on the outskirts of Maiduguri. The TCN had repaired and restored them but on March 27 they were destroyed again by insurgents.
