Shocked residents of Old Itu Road in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State woke up early Wednesday morning to behold a lifeless body trapped to the electric cables.

The dangling body is said to be one of the members of a syndicate, who specialised in vandalising electrical installations of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHECDC) in the area.

“Our light has not been stable, and each time we took complaints to them, they would blame cable thieves and asked us to contribute money for it to be fixed,” Ime Samuel, one of the local residents explained.

Every day for the thief and one day for the owner. Good for the man on his way to hell,” Aniefiok Sunday, a beer pub owner exclaimed, lamenting that “sometimes for months there won’t be light and, and because there is no power to chill our drinks, patronage is always low. People would prefer to go to the nearby Ikot Ekpene town to enjoy their cash.”

It was learnt the syndicate from the neighbouring Aba, Abia State, work in collaboration with Akwa Ibom collaborators, to perpetuate the crime.

“They always come from Aba in Abia State, using our local collaborators here to vandalise underground cables and other electrical installations.

“Because of this, we made efforts to form vigilante group, but we discovered the vandalisation continued due to some informants among them,” Enobong Ekanem, a member of the local youths’ group recalled.

At the time of filing this report, the. PHEDC in Uyo, the state capital was yet to come up with an official statement on the incident, even as the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Superintendent Odiko Macdon, could not pick his calls