March 19, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay
During the 40th sitting of the third session of Parliament, Honorable Members of the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone, have yesterday the 18th of March, asked for the intervention of the Sierra Leone Police, the Internal Affairs Ministry, the Office of the National Security and the Management of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) to concertedly wage war on the new trend of vandalizing Electricity transformers across the country. Those involved in the act have been described as working against the interest of the state.
Raising concerns on the new phenomenon of transformer theft by some saboteurs of the state, Hon. Horace Ekuyemi Vincent of constituency 111 who also happens to be one of the many victims whose transformers have been vandalized, acknowledged that the issue of electricity is of utmost importance to the development of the Nation and that government through the Ministry of Energy has been making tremendous gains in restoring electricity supply across the country.
Hon. Vincent however noted that, a war has been wagged of recent times by some imprudent Sierra Leones Vandalizing and taking away metals and coppers of those transformers and thereby, undermining the laudable work of the government and equally snail-pacing national development of the Country.
He added that, as a Member of Parliament Representing the People of Constituency 111, has been a direct victim of the aforementioned vandalization of transformers in various part of his constituency with specific mentioned of Hastings adding that of recent times, another transformer was vandalized at Yams-Farm leaving only the empty transformers which has resulted to an untold suffering in that part of the City.
He furthered stated that several strides have been made towards the unfortunate recurrent transformer theft but to no avail and therefore asked for the intervention of the security sector in addressing the malaise. He also suggested that if there is no buyer of the metals and coppers harvested from those transformers, he said the country would witness a reduction in transformer theft.
“Mr. Speaker I want to crave on the indulgence of the security apparatus to declare a war on these people because when they destroy these transformers they sell them as metals, coppers and aluminums to those people that trade in scraped metals. Mr. Speaker Honorable Members, this is a national issue and I want it to be treated as a national issue in order to track this people down and salvage the issue of electricity in the country”, he concluded.
In his response to the Hon. Member for raising such concern, the Speaker of Sierra Leone’s Parliament Hon. Dr. Chernor Abass Bundu also affirmed that what those miscreants are looking for in the course of vandalizing those transformers is copper adding that, the incident reminded him of copper line that was used to run from Lunsar to Port Loko with the purpose of supplying electricity and people also used to climb up the poles in harvesting those coppers lines not for export but they used them to make Jewries for ladies. He emphasized that these people destroyed national asset that was vital in supplying electricity to households while leaving both Portloko and Lunsar in complete darkness for years.
Hon. Dr. Abass Bundu is also of the view that it is less likely for a novice in electricity to engage in such heinous act of vandalizing a transformer. He therefore ascribed most of the thieving related to transformers to people who are knowledgeable about electricity. He added that some of them might well be former employees of EDSA or similar organization who know very well what they are looking for and how to get it. He advised the Police and Office of National Security to narrow-down their investigations on those categories of people with specialized knowledge that are causing the damage to the country.
“This frequent reports of people vandalizing transformers right across the country is a matter that has aroused public outcry so we want to crave on your indulgence to stay with us for a few minute so that you can get a clue from the victim in the house and I am sure it will help you a lot for investigating this issue”, Speaker appealed to IGP.
On his part, the Chairman on the Committee on Energy Hon. Keikula C. Vandy also added his voice stating that three months ago, four people were caught in his constituency all proved to be employees of EDSA regarding illegal connections.
He referenced the EDSA Act which provides fifty million fine for anyone caught in illegal connect of electricity but said, they have caught people involved in illegal connection but EDSA only fined them five hundred thousand Leones. He therefore encouraged the leadership of EDSA to accelerate their monitory and punitive measures so that the malaise of illegal connections and transformer theft are addressed. He concluded by requesting EDSA to provide strategy to Members of Parliament so that they could concertedly work together in providing security to those transformers.