Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, has convened a ministerial committee on the prevention of vandalism of power infrastructure, bringing together security agencies, the Office of the National Security Adviser and electricity sector stakeholders to develop a coordinated response to attacks that have repeatedly disrupted electricity supply and cost the government billions of naira in repairs.
The committee was inaugurated on Friday, October 9, 2026, at its inaugural meeting in Abuja, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Power. The ministry said the initiative was part of continuing efforts to guarantee stable and reliable electricity supply for households, businesses and industry, and that the committee was constituted in response to attacks on generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure which disrupt supply, increase repair costs and erode the investment on which the sector depends. Its mandate includes defining the contribution each institution will make toward a lasting solution, enforcing existing laws against vandalism, deploying technology to protect critical national assets and intensifying sensitisation and advocacy campaigns to prevent incidents before they occur. The committee’s work will be aligned with the critical infrastructure unit of the Office of the National Security Adviser, reinforcing the government’s position that protecting electricity assets is a national security priority. It is scheduled to reconvene next week to review progress and assess the implementation of the proposed measures.
The inaugural meeting was attended by the Special Adviser to the President on Homeland Security, Major General Adeyinka A. Famadewa; directors from the Office of the National Security Adviser; the leadership of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps; the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power; and directors from the ministry and relevant agencies. Participants proposed measures to curb vandalism and outlined the roles each office and agency would play, resolving to enforce existing laws on vandalism and bring offenders to justice, to deploy technology in protecting national assets and to use sensitisation and advocacy to prevent incidents before they occur. All parties pledged to work together to end the menace.
The scale of the problem explains the urgency. In June 2025, the Transmission Company of Nigeria disclosed that 42 vandalism incidents recorded in the first half of the year had affected 178 transmission towers across the country, with damage recorded in Abuja, Bauchi, Enugu, Shiroro, Kano and Port Harcourt. The company’s General Manager for Transmission, Adeshina Adeonipekun, said TCN recorded no fewer than 276 cases of tower vandalism between 2022 and 2025. In January 2025, the then Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, said more than N9 billion had been spent restoring vandalised power infrastructure in northern Nigeria in 2024, underscoring the financial burden imposed by the attacks. The pattern has continued in 2026. In August, TCN discovered that four towers along the Afam-IPP–Elelenwo 132kV double-circuit transmission line in Rivers State had been vandalised, with tower members removed and carted away. In September, the company commenced urgent rehabilitation works on towers along the Ikot Abasi–Eket 132kV double-circuit transmission line following further acts of vandalism. A Daily Trust analysis indicated that at least 20 towers had been vandalised from January to August 2026, with four suspects arrested and one death recorded. TCN has consistently described vandalism as one of its most difficult challenges, and the damage affects the grid’s ability to transmit power from generation sites to distribution networks, contributing to outages and load shedding across the country.
The committee’s formation is the latest in a series of measures by the Tinubu administration to address the crisis. In July 2026, the Ministry of Power entered into a partnership with the Nigeria Police Force to establish a dedicated Joint Task Force to protect critical power assets, with the Minister calling for intensified police surveillance around high-risk grid installations and reinforced inter-agency collaboration. Earlier in 2026, the ministry constituted a Technical Working Committee on Grid Stabilisation to work with TCN and the Nigerian Independent System Operator in identifying priority intervention points across the network. The new anti-vandalism committee broadens the effort to include the National Security Adviser’s critical infrastructure unit and the NSCDC, reflecting a recognition that protecting the grid is not solely a matter for the power ministry but a national security imperative.
The political context of the intervention is significant. The 2027 general elections are less than four months away, with the presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for January 16, and the governorship and state assembly elections for February 6. Electricity supply remains one of the most visible indicators of government performance, and the persistent grid disturbances have provided ammunition to critics of the administration’s handling of the power sector. In September 2026, the Minister disclosed that generation had peaked at 5,330 megawatts, up from a range of 3,700 to 4,700 megawatts before June 2026, and that the 375MW Alaoji power plant had been restored after three years offline. The government has consistently argued that its reforms are stabilising the sector, and the new committee is intended to complement those efforts by protecting the infrastructure that delivers the power Nigerians consume.
For electricity consumers across Nigeria, the committee represents a potential solution to a problem that has contributed to unreliable supply and high costs. For the security agencies involved, it is an opportunity to coordinate their efforts and share intelligence on the criminal networks that steal tower members, cables and other equipment for sale on the black market. For the Ministry of Power, the committee is a test of whether the government can translate its stated commitment to protecting national assets into concrete reductions in vandalism and improvements in grid stability. As the ministry put it, effective implementation should translate into fewer outages caused by attacks on infrastructure, a more dependable supply and stronger protection for public and private investment in the power sector. The coming weeks will determine whether the committee’s work produces the coordinated response that the situation demands or becomes another layer of bureaucracy in a sector that already has too many.
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