Suspected cable thief electrocuted

A suspected thief was electrocuted last Sunday in Oke Ureje area of Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, while allegedly stealing cable from a transformer located in the area.

The area had been plunged into darkness after some unknown persons vandalised the transformer but the residents felt some sense of justice in the wake of electrocution of the suspect.

Not a few residents gathered to catch a glimpse of the body of the late cable thief before it was later taken to the mortuary.

The Chairman of the Ajegunle/Ureje Landlord Association, Alhaji Arijoyo Olowoyo, who spoke with reporters, said residents were shocked to see the lifeless body of the suspect.

He said: “It was just about 6.20 am today. We saw a ladder but didn’t see anyone on it. We moved closer to the transformer to see who could be working on the transformer and we were shocked to see the body of a strange man by the transformer. It was then we knew that the deceased must have been the thief who was electrocuted while stealing from the power equipment.”


Another community leader, Prince Ojo Adewale (aka Ogo Oluwa), revealed that the community had been in blackout since December, 2014.

He said efforts to get government and the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) to come to their aid has been futile.

Adewale said: “Since December 24, 2014, we haven’t had power in this community because the thieves have vandalised the transformer, carting away vital parts of it. They even pulled down the up-riser connected to it.

“We have gone to the BEDC and asked them to repair the transformer but they said we should off-set our huge debts first but these were individual debts of people owing power bills.

“Now that this has happened, we want the government to assist us and prevent further damage to the power cables of our transformer. We promise to protect the transformer if the government helps us. ”

BEDC Public Relations Officer, Mr. Kayode Ilori, explained that the deceased must have started his evil business very early in the morning when there was no power on the up-riser.

“But unfortunately for him and fortunately for us, power suddenly got to the cables and that must have electrocuted him”, he said.

The BEDC spokesman, who debunked the speculation that most of those who vandalise power cables are from the power offices, said that residents must be at alert to challenge anyone they see at the transformer posing as an official of their firm and ascertain if indeed he has come from them.

He promised that provided the people of the community are not owing huge debts of power bills, the damaged transformer would be fixed and power would be restored to the area in a few days’ time.

Policemen from the Odo-Ado Police Station in the area, who had arrived the scene early enough when informed by the residents, disclosed that a cell phone and some electrical appliances were recovered from the deceased.

They promised that investigations would be conducted with a view to finding out accomplices of the deceased. They later took the corpse and the ladder away from the scene in their van while the teeming crowd who had thronged the place rained curses on the deceased.