…Living, working under high-tension electric cables
By Josfyn Uba
Atinuke Adebanjo, 32, lived in a one-room apartment in the shanties within the Pipeline area in Ejigbo, a suburb of Lagos.
She had lived there for about four years with her two young children until one fateful night when she went out for a party, leaving both girls alone in the house. 
At about 2:00a.m, while the girls were fast asleep, tragedy stuck. A spark from the high tension electric cable under which their apartment was situated ignited fire. Their house went up in flames. The loud bang attracted neighbours who did their best to rescue the kids, but one of them died before help could come while the other one died on arrival at the hospital as a result of third degree burns.
Their distraught mother wept uncontrollably upon return only to find rubbles in place of where she had once called home.
Atinuke is one out of the many Lagos residents whose lives are daily threatened by the hazards and inherent dangers either by living along or completely under the high tension electric cables.
Sunday Sun visited Ifoshi Phase 3, Mechanic village, Bungalow Area, LSPDC, Jakande Estate, Isolo and our findings are mind-boggling .
Mrs Maria Nzube’s house is directly located under a high tension cable. She has lived there for four years. The mother of one is not oblivious of the dangers associated with her surroundings, but believes that God who brought her there will protect her.
“God’s grace is sufficient for me. I know this is high tension, but I am not afraid because God will not allow any harm befall me,” she believes.
Asked what happens if the government orders for demolition? “Is it when I pay rent to my landlord or not”? she retorted, adding that “it is not possible for them to tell us to move from here”. 
Laide Popoola, a motor mechanic, also recalled that the mechanic village was initially meant only for automobile technicians, but lamented how other people have taken over by building houses and even renting them out.
“When I joined the mechanics’ association, I didn’t know whether the government gave them approval or not. My friend said that as long as we pay our dues, there is no problem. And we pay our taxes and vote during the elections, so how can they chase us away? We only work and go home at the end of the day, but there are people who have built houses and even become landlords. Me, I won’t even move because I do everything government asks us to do,” he declared.
Narrow escape
Mr Augustine Ikpade and his wife narrowly escaped death about three years ago, when a damaged high tension cable landed on the rooftop of their house and burnt everything in the sitting room.
He recalled that “on that fateful day, I was at work when my neighbour’s call came in. I wondered why she was calling, only for her to inform me that my apartment was on fire. God’s grace permitted the speed with which I got back from Apapa to Isolo.”
The worst would have happened, but for providence.
“According to neighbours, the fire was noticed by the students of the school located opposite my house and they raised the alarm. Before I returned, my neighbours had put off the fire, but everything had been burnt. You can imagine what would have happened if my wife was at home, she would have been electrocuted,” he narrated.
Officials of Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (IKEDC) came for assessment after two days and Ikpade was invited to their office for a meeting.
“To my surprise, the manager informed me that most of the houses in the estate were built on the right of way (RoW), but my superior argument that the houses were built before electric poles were mounted, weakened further claims. Instead, they resorted to compensate me,” he said.
But why didn’t he explore the legal option against IKEDC? He said: “People had advised me, but I have never had confidence in our judiciary, so I weighed the options and accepted the compensation”. Although, he promptly relocated to another place after the incident, but he said: “I still feel the trauma when I see people living in such places. Sadly enough, people still do not learn from incidents as many have continued to occupy these deadly locations amidst possible dangers.”
Experts’ opinion on health implications
Prof Ifeoma Okoye, Professor of Radiology, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, noted that potential health concerns about power lines were first raised in a 1979 study which associated increased risk of childhood leukemia with residential proximity to power lines, but failed to clarify whether the observed association is causal or coincidental.
Prof Okoye stated that exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields has been studied extensively, and there is no evidence that it is harmful to human health.
She opined that some scientists said it is based on the physical impossibility of any health effect due to weak ambient levels of EMFs, while others maintained that the potential health risks should not be completely dismissed though the evidence remains equivocal and contradictory.
“The scientific literature has not shown no consistent, significant link between cancer and power line fields, but in all, it is still not safe living under the high tension cables.
“These Electromagnetic fields, which are electric and magnetic fields together, are all around us and are used at home such as electrical appliances, television sets, electrical wiring, computers, radios, and even home appliances like microwave of which everyone is exposed to them at some level. Even the mobile phones all produce some level of EMFs too,” Prof Okoye said.
She, however, noted that “if there are any risks such as cancer associated with living near power lines, then these risks are small.”
She stated that there is also the issue of environmental pollution such as vehicular, industrial fumes, waste disposal and smoke with molecules which produce free radicals that cause cancer.
However, Engr. Ayedegbe Sesan, Electromagnetic expert/Transmission Engineer, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), disclosed that before the Federal Government installs any high tension cables, they would have first acquired the land so that anybody who builds any structure or lives under the power line is on his own.
“For anybody living there, it is a one-day accident because anything can happen. If anything happens, he is the one that will bear the brunt because he has no approval to build under the power line. And there is a distance for anything within the area. For 330kv power line, the measurement is 20m from centre to both left and right, while that of 132kv is 15m,” he said.
Speaking on the health effects, he said: “Some people say that there are health effects, but I don’t think so. There is no health effect. They are talking about electromagnetic wave and I don’t know how electromagnetic wave can come from the transmission line to affect someone living under the power line. People are primarily advised not to live under the power lines because of the danger of accident because the cables are metal and it can snap itself or result in failure. Nobody knows when these failures would occur.”
Dr Enyinnaya Omoke of Limi Multi Specialty Hospital, Abuja, told Sunday Sun that there are basically three possible dangers of living under a high tension cable
Hear him: “The chances of electrocution are highest because high tension cables have high voltages and it is worse during storms and rains. Fire incidents usually occur when the cables fall from the poles. These fire incidents can lead to fire burns on the victim, which if not properly treated can lead to death”.
Dr Omoke also spoke about electromagnetic radiations of which the high tension cables are known to emit electric and magnetic waves. “Exposure to electromagnetic radiations is believed to be dangerous to human health especially when one is exposed to it for a long duration of time. There are projections that it could lead to development of certain cancers, leukemia and brain tumors, although the exact mechanism to the development has not been fully proven,” he said.
New scientific discoveries
While the health implications on people living and working under the high tension electric cables have been a source of concern to the authorities, experts have continued to intensify their research, looking for possible health risks associated with these fields.
More recent study showed an elevated risk of leukaemia among children living in homes with distances much greater than 60m from high voltage power lines.
This study involved close to 30,000 matched case-control pairs of children living in the United Kingdom.
It was found that children living in homes as far as 600m from power lines had an elevated risk of leukaemia.
An increased risk of 69 per cent for leukaemia was found for children living within 200m of power lines while an increased risk of 23 per cent was found for children living within 200 to 600m of the lines (Ray Copes, 2008). This study was notable in that it found some elevation of risk at much greater distances than previous studies.
Lawmakers’ stance
The Nigerian law stipulates that erection of buildings and structures are prohibited under high tension electric wires, specifying a 50-meter distance between power lines and buildings, but residents across different parts of Lagos have continued to flout the regulations to endanger their lives to potential untimely deaths.
The House of Representatives had in March 2021, mandated the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) and other relevant agencies to demolish all structures and commercial activities on the Right of Way (RoW) of the high tension electric cables all over Nigeria.
The resolution of the house followed the adoption of a motion titled: “The need to enforce the law forbidding erection of buildings and structures under high tension electric cables” in a motion moved by Musibau Kolawole, the lawmaker representing Ajeromi-Ifelodun in Lagos State.
The Ministry of Power was, therefore, mandated to ensure the maintenance of high tension cables while Committee on Power was to ensure that the orders were implemented.
Efforts by Lagos State government
The Lagos State government had in its efforts to stop this dangerous trend, demolished over 350 illegal structures built on the right of way (RoW) at Oba Wahab Ayinde Balogun Modern Market, Isheri-Olofin, Egbe-Idimu LCDA.
Again, in December, 2022, owners of structures and people living under high tension cables in different parts of Lagos were mandated by the Lagos State government to vacate the places and relocate to safer locations because of the potential dangers to lives and property.
According to the General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Gbolahan Oki, it is against the provisions of the state’s Urban and Regional Planning and Development laws.
One death, too many
Efforts made by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) included some safety programmes such as awareness campaign programmes on health and safety, engagement of government agencies on right of way (RoW) violations, and a review of an operational procedure for distribution system operators on fault clearing as well as standardizing protective schemes.
Sunday Sun investigations revealed that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) safety regulation of 2015 stipulates that a 50-metre distance split must be maintained on both sides of the lines before erecting any structure close to a 330kv transmission line.
For a 132kV transmission line, the distance is 30 metres while for the power distribution side such as 33kV and 11kV lines, structures must maintain a minimum distance of 11 metres.