The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

THE preliminary report into a case of sabotage at BEC’s Clifton Pier Power Plant is expected this week, with initial indications suggesting the wires were cut by “professionals”, chairman Leslie Miller said.

A major engine at the Clifton power plant had to be shut down after some 15 lines were severed and sections of cables removed from an engine room and auxiliary room sometime before 10pm on Sunday.

Although the engine encountered difficulties that night, workers did not discover that lines had been cut until the following day.

Pointing to the improbability that the damage was committed by someone unfamiliar with the plant, Mr Miller accused BEC workers despite reservations by senior staff that the incident could be theft.

Speaking last Thursday at BEC Headquarters, he said: “That investigation is being carried out as we speak; chief inspector Johnson is heading that team. Initial indications are that in fact they were professional who cut those wires.

“We should see what the results will be but we are not going to let that slip away. It is a total investigation that is going on – we expect an initial report sometime (this) week. The police are on that matter with a full force of officers and we’re going to get to the bottom of it.

“I don’t believe that anyone could have walked off the streets of New Providence, walked into the gates of Clifton, know which wires to cut, know where to go to into that building, know what tiles to pull off the floor. Please, we ain’t that stupid.”

Following Mr Miller’s previous comments that the alleged thief had to be someone who knew the inner working of the engine, president of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union, suggested that it was copper theft and not the work of anyone from BEC. The union had demanded a public apology from Mr Miller for accusing them of cutting the wires.