Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has insisted that there must be an enactment of a legislation to make vandalisation of electricity transmission installations a capital offence. He urged members of the National Assembly to speedily pass the bill seeking to criminalise the act. According to him, prescribing a capital punishment for the crime will reduce the incidents of vandalisation of the infrastructure.
The Minister spoke in Abuja during a briefing the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) organised on its efforts to restore electricity to Northern Nigeria.
The Ministers said: “There must be stiffer penalties. There has to be stiffer penalties, you said capital punishment, yes, maybe. It may not just be one month, two months or such fines. Those are too petty.”
Adelabu also advocated the ban of sale of scraps metals in the country, noting the buying and selling of the scraps has been accountable for the destruction of electricity assets.
He said criminalising the act will reduce the attack on power infrastructure.
He described vandalisation of electricity assets as an act of terrorism, which the ministry was addressing in partnership with the office of the National Security Advisor (NSA) and other security agencies.