From power vandalism to gunrunning: Delta’s mammy market’s dark economy of powerline, arms

For years, the 3 Battalion Mammy Market, adjoining the Tomatoes Market in Effurun, Delta State, thrived as a bustling civilian settlement inside a military formation, home to traders, residents and all manners of hustle.

On October 12, bulldozers rolled in. The demolition followed expiration of a 24-hour eviction notice issued two days earlier to civilian occupants and traders.

For years, the space ahad been a source of discreet income to the Effurun Barracks authorities who allocate space for temporary structures occupied by squatters at negotiated fees and levies

But behind the market’s commercial bustle, the authorities said, a darker economy had grown. The eviction which left thousands displaced was carried out to reclaim the land and address pressing security concerns.

The real trigger, Vanguard gathered, was a formal complaint to the National Security Adviser in an October 9 letter by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, signed by its Managing Director/CEO, Dr. Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz.

That letter has now exposed the Mammy Market as more than a market. It was, by TCN’s estimation, a safe haven for the new threat to national development – unrestrained vandalism of power infrastructure.

In the petition titled REQUEST FOR SECURITY INTERVENTION ON THE VANDALIZATION OF TCN INSTALLATIONS IN SAPELE, TCN told the NSA it has been facing repeated vandalism of its installations around that axis and beyond, posing serious threat to power distribution.

The company said its investigation traced the sabotage to hoodlums operating within and around the Mammy Market on the 3 Battalion grounds along Effurun-Sapele Road.

TCN then solicited NSA intervention to direct Brigadier General I B Buhari to take necessary security measures to apprehend and remove the suspects.

Abdulaziz wrote: “TCN has been experiencing a series of vandalism targeting its installations around the area of Delta State. These repeated attacks pose a serious threat to the reliability and security of electricity transmission infrastructure in the area.

“In the course of our investigation, credible information was gathered indicating that hoodlums operating within and around the Mammy Market are responsible for the attacks and vandalization of TCN installations.”

The letter was copied to the Director of Critical National Assets and Infrastructure Protection at the Presidency.

The consequential raid ordered by the federal government revealed deeper than anticipated. Fighting one threat exposed another.

Though the authorities are shy of talking about it, the military operation reportedly uncovered booming trade in gunrunning, hard drugs and brothels during the demolition. Security sources referenced 40 AK-47 rifles and other ammunition allegedly recovered, with some persons including the market leader reportedly arrested.

Brigadier General Ibrahim Baba Buhari, Commander 63 Brigade Asaba and Commander Sector 1, South-South, Operation Delta Safe, was not forthcoming with official position. Neither was the Commanding Officer at the 3 Battalion.

But top military sources who spoke behind camera gave insight into the underworld the Effurun Mammy had become.

One senior officer explained the procedure for high-profile suspects when Vanguard sought response from relevant military formations in Delta.

“If we have caught some people with rifles, that means they are high-profile suspects, right? And, in our mandate, they are not meant to stay with us for a very long time. As soon as we finish our investigation, we hand them over to police, is that so?”

He added he was not directly in charge of the market: “I’m just hearing what you’re telling me now. I have to make my own findings also. Me, I’m in the Brigade, not in the sector. And the Mami Market is under the CO 3 Battalion, not under the Brigade or sector.”

Another security source who monitored the demolition was more direct about what Mammy harboured:

“The location is Uburoko, just right behind the Mami Market. Those are also inside the barracks, that’s where those brothels are, inside the Mammy.

“So, that’s where they hide after vandalizing those pylons. So, that people lose electricity, and the national grid is down, it’s because of actions like this.”

He said the adjoining scrap market is the real enabler that must be shut:

“There’s a need for the scrap market to be scrapped. Otherwise, they are all looting to the scrap market, and the vandalization or vandalism will continue.

“Government should close downthat scrap market, because nothing good ever happens out of a scrap market. They call those scrap markets ‘One Naija,’ ‘One Sambisa’.

“Once they (stolen power line assets) enter there, under five minutes, they have it dismantled, it’s melted. They harbour them, you can’t separate good people from bad people.”

He said vandalism started in December 2025 but became unbearable in August 2026 when 11 pylons were brought down after vandals cut smaller components to weaken the structure. One vandal died when a weakened tower collapsed on him.

“That picture of the dead person, he didn’t know the pylon rods had become weak from initial scavenging. So as he was cutting the pipe, the thing just came down on him.”

He warned eviction alone will not work because displaced vandals are relocating to a dump site across the road, stressing that police, NDLEA and other agencies find it difficult to enter Mammy because it is taken as a military zone.

“The Police, NDLEA and other security agencies, they find it difficult to penetrate and enter (the Mammy) because they take it as a military zone so most of them (vandals) seek safe haven in Mammy.”

He defended the operation was not a raid: “We were not even raiding. We were just demolishing. So they are entering, picking their things and leaving. We are not beating anybody, not restricting them.”

He said TCN is exhausted by the cost and delay of replacement.

“TCN got tired. The one in Delta cannot repair those pylons. They have to get it from outside and it takes months. Just compare the amount of energy being lost to vandals.”

Visual evidence shows catastrophic damage – total structural failure of towers like T98 and T100 after systematic stripping of base bracing, angle iron, bolts and gusset plates.

TCN’s patrol on Delta/Afisere 132kV line found nine towers – T9, T10, T11, T12, T14, T15, T16, T17 & T18 – vandalised and needing urgent rehabilitation to avoid collapse.

Not An Isolated Case

The pattern is not limited to Delta. In Rivers State, advocate Alhaji Brian Barile who documents vandalism from Afam Power Plant, Oyigbo to Elelenwon in Obio/Akpor said:

“From Elelenwon to Oyigbo, all the base braces and components of the electricity towers are gone, all stolen.”

He described what he met around Green City Estate:

“I was on the railway from Elelewon to Ogba side doing some work when I decided to stroll within Elelewon, under the Green City Estate, around the designated International Cattle Market when I discovered the mind-boggling vandalism.”

Comparing untouched and vandalised towers, he said, “I saw one (pylon) untouched because there are living houses surrounding. You can see it’s complete, untouched, formidable and giving the pylon strength to stand.”

“Others have been compromised, vandalised. They’ve everything at the base removed and you can see the pole (mast) bending. Anything can happen now. The strength of these poles are gone.”

For TCN, the bulldozers in Mammy were not just about land. It was a desperate push to save the national grid from a dark economy of scrap, arms and drugs thriving behind barracks gates.

For the law-abiding among thousands of squatters evicted from the Mammy, the bulldozers also left in their trail huge human cost in loss of property and livelihoods many would take who knows how long to recover from.