The Yobe government has turned to spiritual interventions in its efforts to combat insurgents who are destroying electricity towers that connect the state and Borno to the national grid.

Babagana Kyari, the Special Adviser to Governor Mai Mala Buni on Religious Affairs, disclosed this approach earlier this week during a prayer session in Damaturu, the state capital.

The Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) reported that insurgents attacked the towers in December 2023 and February 2024.

On Wednesday, Governor Mai Mala Buni led a group of Muslim clerics to the site of the damaged towers. There, they recited the Quran and prayed for divine punishment on the vandals should they attempt to approach the towers again. Students of the Holy Quran also participated in the recitation and prayer session.

Cows were sacrificed as a plea to Allah to expose the insurgents and their sponsors responsible for the attacks on the towers.

Kyari stated, “The spiritual prayer session was for Allah to expose and punish the criminals, their sponsors, their supporters, those who helped them with the tools used in the destruction of the towers, their transporters to the scene of the crime, whoever knows but refuses to expose them, buyers of the vandalized tower parts, and transformer thieves.”

The towers are part of the Jos–Gombe grid that supplies electricity to Borno and Yobe states.