By John Ugo and Kamsi Anayo, lAwka
A middle aged man has been electrocuted in Amawbia community in Awka South local government area of Anambra.
The incident happened on Monday morning as residents of the area woke to discover the victim who had attempted to vandalize a transformer in the area.
Also, the police said on Monday that they arrested two persons alleged to have been involved in the vandalization of materials used in the construction of the Second Niger Bridge.
The yet-to-be identified man was said to have arrived the area with members of his gang with the intention to vandalize electrical wire installations at a transformer located In front of a hotel in Amawbia .
It was gathered that the gang had capitalized on the five days of power outage that hit major cities in Anambra recently to wreak havoc on electricity installations.
Luck was said to have ran out of one of them as he was electrocuted while disconnecting some cables when the Enugu Electrical Distribution Center (EEDC) restored power to the area at about 12 midnight.
The gang members, it was learnt, on noticing that their colleague had been electrocuted took to their heels with the wires they had already vandalized and abandoned the victim.
The Police Public Relations Officer of the State Command, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga could not confirm the incident when contected.
Men of the Anambra Police Command were however seen at the scene of the incident but nobody could identify the victim.
Ikenga in a statement to newsmen in Awka on Monday said ,”Men of Anambra State Police Command attached to Harbour Division last week nabbed two robbers dispossessing unsuspecting citizens of their valuables on the Second Niger Bridge.”
According to him, “The Police team which was on surveillance patrol on the Bridge to prevent vandals from stealing expansion joints were alerted to activities of the gang near the Obosi end of the bridge.”
“The Covert Police Team monitored the gang and swooped in on them arresting two of the gangsters while others fled.
“When searched, two daggers and five SIM cards removed from previously stolen phones were recovered from the suspects aged between 20 and 22 years.
“One of the suspect hailed from Enugu State and the other from Ebonyi State.
“The Commissioner of Police CP Aderemi Adeoye commended the Police Team for its vigilance and courage in confronting the gang.
“He has directed that owners of the recovered SIM cards be located with a view to assembling evidence for successful prosecution of the arrested suspects.”
