TELL Magazine

A middle-aged man whose identity is yet to be ascertained has been electrocuted while trying to vandalise the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, (BEDC) Plc’s transformer along Airport Road, Benin, City. The deceased had succeeded in cutting some of the cables before his electrocution.

The BEDC, in its reaction at the scene where the body of the deceased laid stone dead on the ground, regretted the incessant act of energy theft and vandalism of the company’s facilities within its franchise states of Edo, Delta, Ondo, and Ekiti, and warned people to desist from the dangerous act.

The incident, which happened at the early hours of Monday, attracted the attention of angry passers-by who rained curses on the deceased for being the one responsible for their perpetual darkness all this while. They were happy that he had at last met his waterloo.

One of the residents of the area, who identified himself as Emmanuel a.k.a James Bond 007, Airport Road Landlord, attributed the action of the deceased to get-rich-quick syndrome. He said the deceased would have still been alive if had cultivated the act of due diligence in making money.

Emmanuel said despite losing his life in the process, he had also succeeded in putting the entire community in total darkness. He therefore called on youths to shun the act of quick money and look for a genuine way of making money to avoid unwarranted death.

Speaking at the scene of the incident, the BEDC’s Head of Corporate Communications, Evelyn Gbiwen, who decried the incessant act of energy theft and vandalism of the company’s facilities within its franchise states of Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti, said people must learn to desist from it because the act is so dangerous.

She said despite the company’s regular warning to members of the public to desist from vandalism and energy theft, she wondered why people still indulge themselves in it. She said that this singular act of the vandal had thrown the entire community into total darkness.

Gbiwen consequently appealed to residents in areas where BEDC’s facilities are located, to be vigilant and help safeguard them from vandals so that the company can serve them better.