A yet-to-be identified man was electrocuted on Saturday while stealing from an up-riser connected to a transformer on Poly Road, in Ureje community of Ado Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
People of the community told DAILY POST that Muslim worshippers in a mosque close to the scene of the incident had left the worship centre at about 6:20am yesterday, and saw a ladder hung on the up-riser connected to their transformer.
They became curious wondering whether officials of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BDEC) had come to repair the faulty transformer which had since packed up on December 24, 2014, because some vital parts of it had been stolen.
Spokesman of the community, Alhaji Jamiu Babalola and Chairman of the Ajegunle/Ureje Landlords Association of the community, Alhaji Arijoyo Olowoyo, who both spoke to DAILY POST said: “It was just about 20 minutes past 6am today. We saw the ladder but didn’t see anyone on it. We moved closer to the transformer to see who could be working on the transformer or the up-riser. We were shocked to see a body of a strange man lying dead 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 resident, who identified himself as the Treasurer of the Landlord Union of the community, Prince Ojo Adewale (aka ‘Ogo Oluwa)’, revealed that the community had been in blackout since December, 2014, and efforts to get government and the BDEC to come to their aide has been futile. He 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 BDEC and asked them to come and repair the transformer but they said we should off-set our huge debts first.
“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. ”
Mr. Kayode Ilori, Public Relations officer of the BEDC, Ekiti State told DAILY POST 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 short while.
Policemen from the Odo-Ado Police station in the area, who arrived the scene early enough told DAILY POST 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 cursed the disease.
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