According to Zakari John, a resident of the area, this incident is the fourth time vandals are attempting to steal copper wire from the area, noting that it is the first time a life is lost.

“The PUNCH reports that a man who is yet to be identified has been electrocuted in the Labour Quarters area of Gombe State.

Eyewitnesses told our correspondent that the man arrived around 3 am on Thursday with a suspected gang member who dropped him off at the point of his death before proceeding to another destination.

According to Zakari John, a resident of the area, this incident is the fourth time vandals are attempting to steal copper wire from the area, noting that it is the first time a life is lost.

The PUNCH reports that the quest for copper wire due to its high return has made a lot of communities run current installations with aluminium which is less lucrative and some others use an underground connection.

John revealed that three attempts were successful leaving the community in darkness for over a week.

He said, “This is the fourth time now, the last three times they were successful and it cost us days in darkness. Luck suddenly ran out of this one who had climbed and started vandalising.

“We noticed when the power tripped off in a way that we considered unusual and we heard that vehicle carrying others dropped him and he began to operate. When criminals come they go for copper wire, what the company did was to change from copper to aluminium which is less attractive. He has started cutting the cable but didn’t know of a dangling live cable that touched his head and electrocuted him.”

When contacted the Head of Communications Jos Electricity Distribution Company Dr Friday Elijah, urged residents to keep vigil around their various installations.

Elijah said, “We urge them to keep a vigil on electrical installations in their domain, let them help us by constantly monitoring our transformers. It is our primary responsibility to safeguard these assets but we also need the help of the residents. Once the transformers are vandalised, sometimes it takes us few days, or weeks to get it repaired and the community will be in the dark.”

He noted that efforts were on to install solar lights around installations to ward off vandals.

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