Illegal power connection kills 11 year old child in PNG

A 11 year old boy will never get to celebrate the new year with his family tonight as a result of illegal connections at the settlement along the Baruni road in Port Moresby.

The innocent little boy lost his life last week Friday morning as he got into contact with a property pole that was live with electricity.

The property pole, including another two is owned by a church group in the area.

The church group didn’t follow the right procedure and/or apply to PNG Power for new power connection, yet it engaged an unlicensed electrician to connect the service lines via the three poles without proper insulation.

On one pole, the service line got in contact with the pole making the pole live with electricity. The boy touched this pole and got electrocuted instantly.

PPL inspectors and linesmen disconnected and removed the service lines this morning after the tragic incident.

PPL CEO John Tangit said this is a result of what illegal connection can do to innocent people.

He said the church group should have followed the right process and got a licensed electrical contractor or PPL linesmen to do the wirings and get PPL inspectors to assess the connections before turning on the power.

“The message to the public is that illegal connections are very dangerous. This incident is a classical example of being ignorant of the great risk posed by illegal connection and this habit has to stop throughout the nation to avoid such fatal incident,” Mr Tangit said.

“I advise the general public and electricity consumers to stop illegal connection and report any illegal connections happening around their neighborhood to the nearest PPL office. You cannot play around with electricity like water, and do illegal connections, as electricity can kill,” he said.

PNG Today / Post Courier