A 34-year-old vandal in Delta State, John Pere was severely burnt on Thursday when electricity was suddenly restored while trying to steal a 33KV power cable.
The electricity cable belonged to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) situated along the 3 Battalion Nigerian Army, Effurun Barracks road, Warri, Delta State.
Pere was in the process of cutting the cable when luck ran out for him as the electricity company suddenly restored light resulting in him getting burnt all over his body.
He confessed that he had been in the practice of vandalising power cables and was responsible for vandalisation of several electric cables within Warri and sold them to cart pushers.
He added that he used to be involved in illegal oil bunkering but abandoned it because he was not making enough money from it which made him start vandalising power cables.
Reacting, the BEDC’s Public Affairs Relations manager, Esther Okolie, said the community would have been thrown into darkness and the Refinery Road substation shut down if Pere had succeeded in vandalising the cables.
She noted that vandalism of electric cables is one of the reasons electricity companies are unable to supply steady power to Nigerians, adding that replacing vandalized cables always cost power companies huge amounts of money.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Delta State Command, Bright Edafe, said the command will commence investigation into the incident to ascertain if there were other accomplices.