Anambra: Fallen power cable electrocutes three-year-old

Anambra map

Tragedy struck at Isaiah Morah Close, Awka, the Anambra State capital, on Saturday, when a fallen high tension cable belonging to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company electrocuted a three-year-old girl in the area.

The girl was said to have stepped on the cable, not knowing there was current in it.

PUNCH Online gathered that the high-tension cable had fallen the previous day and all efforts to get it removed failed.

Some residents in the area who spoke to journalists on Monday, said the officials of the power company who were contacted demanded the sum of N30,000 to fix the cable and after the money was paid to them, they still did not come.

A resident identified simply as Uche said, “The electric cable fell on Friday and it was only fixed on Sunday, May 24, 2025, after it had electrocuted the girl.

“The incident was posted on our WhatsApp group and a team was dispatched by the power company to immediately respond, but they could not locate the place. After allegedly trying their best, they went back to the office.“The three-year-old girl who was electrocuted lived with her mother and other people in a house under construction and partly abandoned in the street.

“They usually go out to fetch water from other compounds. But unfortunately, on that fateful day, as she was coming home, she stepped on the fallen cable not knowing that the cable had power.

“The innocent girl went near and was electrocuted. When other children saw what happened, they shouted and the adults who ran out carefully pulled her off, rushing her to Awka Medical Centre at Udoka gate, but she did not make it.”

When contacted on Monday, the spokesman for the Anambra State Police Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, could not confirm the incident.

Ikenga said there was no report of such before the command.