A man, suspected to be a cable thief, has been reportedly electrocuted at Faith Street, off Owena road, in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State.
The deceased, identified as one Omoivie, was said to have died while attempting to steal some electric cables at a high voltage distribution system belonging to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company in the area.
It was also learnt that the BEDC was yet to connect the area to the HVDS.
A source in the area said that the corpse of the victim was sighted near some mini transformers with a plier by his side on Thursday morning.
According to the source, the cable thief may have been killed between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. due to the fluctuation of power experienced during the period.
Some sympathisers who were at the scene said that the deceased was recently released from prison, after spending many months awaiting trial for cable theft.
He was also said to be the eldest son of his family.
However, some residents alleged that the deceased may have been a serial thief as many cables connected to the HVDS in the area had been stolen since they had not been electrified for public use.
A landlord in the area, Okhuorabo Isaac, said, “We always bought cables for our transformers and they were stolen in this area.”
Another resident, Believe Ovamwanta, said, “There was electricity when the incident happened. The boy was killed because of induction of the wires.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Moses Nkombe, could not be reached for comments.
But the Public Relations Officer of the distribution company, Tayo Adekunle, confirmed the incident adding that investigation had commenced
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