At least four transformer vandals who were identified by youths as Fulani men have escaped after successfully vandalizing two transformers in Umuakali, Naze The Agenda Online Newspaper reports.
According to details gathered by our correspondent, the four Fulani men came in the wee hours of Saturday morning to two different transformers located at the Nzerem and Onyeneke’s compound of bus-stop 3 Umuakali-Naze.
The four vandals went into the transformers and vandalized cables, coppers and wires amongst others valued at about a million naira.
The youths who came out on security patrol sighted strange persons making sounds and called out on them to know who and who were there. Little did they know that the vandals had already vandalized some items from the transformers which they kept in sacks and were probably waiting to commit more before leaving.
In response to the calls, the vandals flashed torchlight back at the youths and told them in Hausa-accented-English language that they were security who were on duty. This surprised the youths as they were not aware of any arrangement made with such persons.
However, things turned around when the youths who had suspected that they were thieves advanced towards them with intention of knowing the identities of those strange voices who spoke them at that hour, only for the suspects to communicate to each other in Hausa language and flee before the youths got closer.
Getting closer to where the four vandals were standing before they escaped, the youths found out that they had abandoned several vandalized items from transformers which were already packed in sacks and were only waiting to be moved.
Items discovered at the venue of incident were cables, copper wires, hand gloves, knives and cutlasses which had charms tied around it.
A security operative who was on ground at the venue of the incident and spoke to us on grounds of anonymity said it was time for Naze community as a whole to beef up security as Umuakali and the entire Naze is now a cosmopolitan community.
He also noted that serious security awareness need to be put in place on Friday nights, as these vandals have probably resolved that late hangouts on Friday nights by the youths gives room for lackadaisical attitude towards security issues in communities.
As at time of filling this report, officials of the Enugu Electricity Company of Nigeria have been contacted and handed over those recovered items with hopes that it will be fixed immediately and power restored.
