Collapsed electric pole kills suspected cable thief in Akwa Ibom

One person identified as Ulim Amos Udo, suspected to be a cable thief, has been killed as vandalized power infrastructure including electric pole crashed to the ground at Udianga Enem, in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State

Sources in the community told this reporter that the deceased was a notorious cultist who was in the habit of stealing and robbing people of their valuables including livestock but met his waterloo while vandalizing the power infrastructure.

According to the source, the vandal was critically injured while trying o vandalize the electric cables, but unfortunately crashed with the collapsed pole to the ground.

Akpan Effiong Etuk, a member of the youths’ vigilante group, told our correspondent that the “the incident occurred at about 2:00am, when everyone in the community was fast asleep.

“When he climbed the pole, he had no premonition that due to heavy rain in recent times, the ground could be very soft for the pole to be firm enough to carry his weight. At the top of the pole, in the process of trying to cut off the cables, he fell down with the collapsing concrete pole, which crashed and heavily injured him.

“His accomplices rushed to his compound, popularly called Ilung-Udoiyong, and alerted the parents, who rushed him to a local traditional bone-setter at Ikot Edet village, in the neighbouring Ukanafun LGA, but unfortunately he died, and was hurriedly buried on Saturday,” he recalled.

The matter, it was learnt, could not be reported to the Village Head, Chief Memdie Josiah Udoekoriko, said to be sick and taken away for treatment, forcing the local residents to call on security agencies to help in providing security cover to the village, to safeguard electricity facilities, lives and properties of the people from the marauding cultists and other criminal elements.

“All the neighbouring villages including Ikot Obioma, our closest neighbour here, have been enjoying electricity extended to some areas in this Etim Ekpo LGA, by the immediate past administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel, but Udianga Enem village cannot be connected because cable thieves, who had earlier vandalized the power transformer stationed to serve our community near the Village Square (Alaha – Okpoikut),” he lamented.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Odiko MacDon, could not respond to calls, but a senior Police officer at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), state Police Command headquarters, Ikot Akpanabia, near Uyo, the state capital, who would not want his name in print, condemned incessant cases of vandalization of power facilities across Akwa Ibom, adding that “we are yet to get such report from Etim Ekpo Area Command.”

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