The wise saying that “Nine days for thief and one day for the owner of farm” caught up with a suspected cable thief in Ikot Ekpene Business Unit of Port Harcourt Electricity Distributing Company (PHED) as he was electrocuted on the act.
Eye witness account has it that the vandal met his waterloo in the early hours of Wednesday while trying to disconnect light from the high tension wire along old Itu Road in Ikot Ekpene, Ikot Ekpene local government area of the state.
The culprit, whose lifeless body after being trapped, was seen early in the morning by the residents of the area is alleged to be one the syndicates whose stalk in trade is to vandalize public utility cables (electrical installations) and sell to their ready buyers.
Their activities, an eyewitness said have been one of the reasons of frequent power outage in the area, inspite of the state government efforts to ensure power for all agenda.
Narrating the problem the area was made to go through as a result of the activities of these electrical installation vandals, one Ime Samuel, a resident of the area said, “Our light has not been stable, and each time we took complaints to them, they would blame cable thieves and asked us to contribute money for it to be fixed”.
“Nine days for the thief and one day for the owner. Good for the man on his way to hell”, Aniefiok Sunday, a beer pub owner exclaimed, lamenting that “sometimes for months there won’t be light and, and because there is power to chill our drinks, patronage is always low. People would prefer to go to the nearby Ikot Ekpene town to enjoy their cash”.
It was learnt that the syndicates from the neighbouring Aba, Abia state, work in collaboration with Akwa Ibom collaborators, to perpetuate the crime.
“They always come from Aba in Abia state, using our local collaborators here to vandalize underground cables and other electricity installations. Because of this, we made efforts to form vigilante group, but we discovered the vandalization continues due to some informants among them”, Enobong Ekanem, a member of the local youths’ group recalled.
Although PHED in Uyo, the state capital was yet to come up with official statement on the incident but information from the area confirmed that the lifeless body of the thief has recovered by the police in Ikot Ekpene Area Command and taken away.
