‘366 Nigerians Die Of Electrocution’

The Network for Electricity Consumers Advocacy of Nigeria (NECAN), yesterday raised an alarm over 366 Nigerians killed by electrocution in 2017, as a result of man-made factors.
This was disclosed by the National Secretary, NECAN, Uket Abonga, while appraising poor power infrastructure across the country.
According to Abonga, who described the deaths as unacceptable said from their investigations 86.8 per cent of the victims were electricity consumers, while the remaining 13.2 per cent were staff of the operating electricity companies.
He said: “The Network for Electricity Consumers Advocacy of Nigeria (NECAN), decries the high level of electricity related accidents leading to the deaths of many Nigerians and loss of property in 2017.
“About 366 Nigerians were said to have died through electrocutions and property valued at several hundreds of millions of Naira lost.
“Our findings reveal that of the 366 deaths recorded in 2017 86.8 per cent of the victims were electricity consumers, while the remaining 13.2 per cent were that of staffers of the electricity companies in the industry, this high incidence of deaths is alarming and unacceptable. “The investigations carried out by NECAN reveal that many of the accidents that occurred in the preceding year in the sector can be attributed to man-made factors, which include inadequate knowledge, information and ignorance on the part the consumers and operators, system protection equipment failures, in some cases total absence of protection devices, poor and aging transmission network lines, aging distribution networks which used to be replaced, poor response to complaints of faulty facilities and lines by staff of the transmission and distribution companies.
“Others are non adherence to safety rules and guidelines, non enforcement of safety standard by regulatory agencies, continued existence of very poor and substandard materials, systems and distribution networks, unwillingness of the distribution companies to improve on the assets acquired”.