A PHCN staff, Mr Samuel Isaac, was on Wednesday electrocuted while working on a high tension cable on Satellite-NTA road in Ado Ekiti.

 Reports say that Isaac was electrocuted by a 33KVA high tension wire which suddenly disconnected and fell on his back as he was trying to detect an electrical fault on the pole.

The deceased, an Electrical/Electronics Engineering graduate of Osun State College of Technology, Esa Oke, reportedly died on the spot.

Residents of the area trooped out to catch a glimpse of the victim’s lifeless body hanging on the pole at Satellite Junction in the state capital.

It was gathered that the intensity of the power surge was said to have caused serious burns to the victim’s body.

Isaac’s charred body had been deposited at the morgue of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital in the state capital.

PHCN’s Public Relations Officer in Ekiti State District, Mr Kayode Brown, said the victim was working on the feeder line to detect some faults on the high tension line that had caused power outage in the area.

He said Isaac was employed about three years ago and had adequate experience to handle such a sensitive electrical work.

Brown said he suspected that the victim’s electrocution must have been caused by what he described as ‘back-feed’ on the high tension pole, but said such a situation was an unusual phenomenon in electricity management.

The spokesman said Isaac was deployed alongside other technicians and professionals in sectionalising the network in the area to correct certain faults.

“We have to get to the root of this matter because cases of back-feeding are very rare while working on high tension lines and nobody uses a generator that could have warranted such an incident.

“So, we are at a loss about the cause of his death,’’ Brown said.

The Chairman of Ado Local Government, Mr Sunday Ibitoye, who visited the scene, expressed shock over the incident.

Ibitoye described the incident as pathetic and called on the management of PHCN to unravel the cause of Isaac’s death.