The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) has flagged off safety awareness campaign in Calabar, the Cross River state capital.
The flag off according to the Manager, Corporate Communications, PHED, John Onyi was to re-awaken the safety consciousness of those trading, living or erecting structures under the high tension lines.
Onyi in a statement recently in Port Harcourt, the headquarters of the distribution company, regretted the situation where members of the public were no longer adhering strictly to safety standards and guidelines.
The Manager, Corporate Communications recounted with dismay where people have died in the past due to electrocution arising from snapping of high tension lines or any other electrical faults.
The deaths, he said would have been avoided if they had obeyed safety requirements.
According to him, “Accidents, could occur but the most important part of it was to be conscious of it and avoid being a victim’.
Onyi said that the safety requirement for 11/33kv lines  is 12.5 metres; 132kv, 25 metres; 330kv lines, 50 metres and on 0.415kv lines is 1.5 metres.
“Apart from the gathering, 305 houses have been identified in the city and posters specially made to educate them have been pasted on their gates, highlighting the implications of living or trading under the PHED high tensions and the need for them to vacate, noting that in the event of any eventuality, PHED would not be held liable for people encroaching on her right of way.
“We have written series of letters to the government of Cross River and indeed the three other states through the Ministry of Urban and Regional Development where we have our presence on the implications of trading under the high tension lines.
“We are not to enforce the law but to create the awareness and that’s what we are doing. It is the responsibility of the government to enforce it”, he said.
Similar action would be carried out in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers States where houses under the high tension lines have been identified.