TRUE IDENTITY OF THE VANDALS
It was like every other Sunday morning in JIDE-MARK community in Akure, the Ondo state capital. I had already gone to church but forgot my Bible at home, so had to rush back home. I was a few meters from my house when I saw some people gathered around a man – before long, they started beating him. On my way back to church I could not but stop to find out what was going on because the crowd had sporadically increased in number.
After staying for a few minutes, I discovered that the man been beating is a PHCN official (called Larry B) who according to the people that saw him was trying to vandalize the transformer installation in the community. When he was confronted, he said someone within the community called him to fix an alleged fault. His reason was very unbelievable because for a number of days now, we have been enjoying good power supply and there was power when he came to fix the allege fault. This situation drew the attention of the chairman of the community, who asked the culprit to call back the person who called him to come for the repairs but he couldn't give a number at first and later gave a number but the person on the other side of the phone said he does not know him. It was at that point that the people of the community descended on him heavily.
Luckily for him, the beatings was suspended when he gave an expired ID card(according to people that saw it) showing that he is a staff of PHCN. In the midst of the arguments, someone who knew him(who i suspected to be a PHCN staff) made a call to some of Mr. Larry B's colleagues who came to the scene of the incidence with two vans. These people that I can also describe as co-culprits, to my mind came (looking like criminal) just to put up a scene to defend their partner in crime.
They came down from their vans, putting up a scene, asking for the persons that beat their so called 'oga'. What shame it is for someone acclaimed to be a senior member of staff of PHCN to be part of criminals involved in vandalising transformer installations. This write up will be incomplete if i do not mention the part that pains me the most.
These crook, looking like touts made sure they revenge the beating of their 'oga' by deactivating the transformer and going away with some fuse they took from it. This immediately subjected us to darkness, the duration of which is unpredictable for now. This to me is an act of rubbery and injustice, taking place in broad day light and on a Lord's day.
This happens to be the second time the transformer have been vandalised in broad day light in the space of a year(approximately) since its installation. The transformer was repaired about two months ago from the damage the last vandals (also thought to be PHCN officials) caused. The people of the community painfully cuffed out about two hundred and fifty thousand naira (N250,000.00k) to do the repairs. This act of vandalising transformers seem to have become the trend amongst PHCN officers. Just about four days ago it was reported that some PHCN officials vandalised a transformer installation in a nearby community.
The saying, 'an idle hand is the devils workshop' can now be written as, 'busy hands are now tools in the devils workshop' , in that gainfully employed members of our society, fathers and role models to lots of people that depend on them could be so shameless and because they are greedy for gain, stoop so low to steal from(vandalise) an installation they ought to keep safe. This is just a show of moral decadence and lack of value for fellow citizen.
I hereby call on all concerned Nigerian, civil society groups, and all that champion the course of corruption and injustice to look into the mode of illegal operation of such unworthy member of staff of PHCN and treat this issue accordingly. I mean well for my country and I don't want such occurrence to happen to other people. May God Heal and Bless Nigeria.