Four Bag Seven Years Imprisonment For Vandalising EEDC Installation
Four persons have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for conspiracy, vandalism, and stealing of property belonging to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).
The suspects were convicted by the High Court of Ebonyi State in the Afikpo Judicial Division presided over by Hon. Justice Nicholas Nwode.
Mr Emeka Ezeh, Group Head, Corporate Communications, EEDC,
said this in a Statement made available in Awka on Wednesday.
The suspects were Ikechukwu Esseh, Ikedinachi Uche, Ukpai Godwin, and Uchenna Kalu. were arrested on Nov.28, 2023, for attacking a 7.5MVA Injection Substation of EEDC) at Education Board Road, Afikpo.
“The presiding Judge, after carefully reviewing evidence before him sentenced the accused to five years imprisonment on count one, seven years imprisonment on count two, and five years imprisonment on count three.
“These will run concurrently without the option of fine.
“We commend the judiciary for the judgement, and hope that this will serve as a deterrent to others out there, who may engage in such criminal act,” he said.
Ezeh said the management of EEDC commended the judiciary for the judgement and appealed for speedy trial of other pending matters.
He said the company equally appreciated the efforts of the General Youth President and Afikpo Task Force Team for mobilising to apprehend the vandals.
Ezeh appealed to customers to support efforts aimed at safeguarding installations in their neighborhood while decrying activities of vandals which have impacted negatively on the company’s operations.
According to him, this is a clear indication of community support and collaboration in the protection of electricity infrastructure.
“As a result, we continue to commit scarce resources to restore vandalised equipment – funds that would ordinarily be channeled to other areas of our operations that will benefit our customers,” he said..
He urged customers to remain vigilant and protect electricity installations in their neighborhoods from vandalism, to avert service fa
ilure and inconvenience.
