Politically speaking, the negative phenomenon of vandalism of our 330kV and 132kV high tension transmission lines is a serious security and economic threat to the country.
Although not a new behavior as the rate of vandalism of our transmission lines was brazen in the 1980s, the damage to our critical national assets took a lull but it seems to be rearing its ugly head once again, hence the need for the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and other stakeholders to take urgent steps to arrest the situation.
In March, 2022, one of the 330kV lines from Benin to Sapele tripped due to attacks that affected some of the towers. 
On April 8, 2022 at around 1830hrs, the grid experienced system disturbance due to the activities of criminals who vandalized tower 104 along 330kV Ikot Ekpene/Odukpani line. 
On September 3, 2022, 330kV Afam/Onne DC line came under the attack of miscreants at Gbake community in Ogoniland, Rivers state. This unfortunate incident affected tower numbers 19, 20, 21, 22 and the same line was targeted for attack on October 10, 2022, with two towers affected but in their third attempt on November 25, 2022 on the same line, luck ran out of them as nine of them were arrested when confronted, although one of the vigilantes was shot and later died before they got reinforcement from the military. Also, near Osogbo, two towers along the yet to be commissioned 330kV Benin/Akure/Osogbo line were hacked with welding machines, leading to a delay in completing the project.
The 132kV lines are not spared from the devilish activities of these vandals as 132kV New Haven/Yandev line became fragile due to vandalism before it was repaired. Recently, three Towers on the 132kV Papalanto/Abeokuta DC lines were vandalized thus plunging Abeokuta and environs into blackout before they were fixed. At the peak of terrorism in the north eastern part of the country, several attacks by terrorists have left customers in blackout and also disrupting other economic activities.
The impact of this economic sabotage is huge as TCN has lost billions of naira in trying to restore services back to affected areas.
In finding an end to this menace, the Managing Director of TCN, Dr. Sule Abdulaziz advocated for all hands to be on deck when he said that “to effectively achieve steady power supply to the people, every citizen of Nigeria must in one way or another contribute to this fight against the vandalism of power infrastructures”
Furthermore, the government, power operators, community residents, security agents such as civil defence, vigilantes should deepen cooperation to stop the criminals before they perpetrate their acts while those caught should be severely punished through the instrumentality of the judicial process.