Silhouette of an alleged electric cable thief

Okafor Ofiebor

Residents of Ogbe Quarters of Ute-Okpu Kingdom in Ika North East Local Government Area of Delta State, woke up in the morning of Saturday July 8, 2023, and found an unidentified middle aged man electrocuted on 11KVA poles.

It is suspected that he may cashed the lack electricity supply and the cover of darkness to climb the high tension electric pole close to the transformer around the market square in Ogbe Quarters vandalize some of highly priced electrical parts atop the poles.

Unfortunately, he was not that smart and lucky. The unfortunate incident also drew the attention of many from outside Ute-Okpu as many defiled the rain just to see if they could identify the suspect.

Sources from the community revealed that it was a lad who first spotted the lifeless body of the young man hanging on an electric pole on that fateful morning of Saturday and raised the alarm.

It was learnt that many residents were enveloped with fear and were inside their various houses due to the heavy rainfall, but when the shocking incident occurred, many were said to have trooped out to know who the victim was.

The suspect was said to had successfully cut two electric cables on the electric pole and was attempting to cut the last one when electricity supply was fully restored.

Ika Weekly Newspaper , Agbor based tabloid in Delta State, reports that there was no power supply in the community on that day but it was said that the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, the power distribution company suddenly restored power at the wee hour of that fateful day which eventually electrocuted the vandal.

At the time of filing this report, the body of the electrocuted suspect had been brought down by security operatives and deposited in the mortuary and the Delta State Police Command was yet to comment on the incident