Forty people living in different locations in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, have been apprehended by the police in less than 24 hours for allegedly stealing electricity in their homes. This followed a special operation on Wednesday.
Power supply to the homes of the suspects had been cut because they owed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) but they decided to reconnect the power themselves without informing the company.
A joint taskforce of police and ECG officers stormed homes in areas such as Atonsu, Kwadaso, Kokoben, Breman, Asafo and Dompoase where they arrested the 40 people who were enjoying power illegally.
The police are currently holding the suspects and will arraign them before court after investigations.
Briefing the press, Erasmus Kyere Baidoo, Public Relations Manager, ECG Ashanti, expressed disgust at the impunity with which people who have been disconnected by the ECG do self-reconnections in their homes in the city.
He said ECG customers owe the company a whopping GH¢100 million in the Ashanti Region alone for power used, lamenting about how the huge debt was adversely affecting the operations of the company.
Mr Baidoo noted that self-reconnections had been on the ascendancy in Kumasi and the nearby towns, an unpleasant development which he said had compelled the ECG to team up with the police to arrest the culprits to face justice.
He said scores of people were arrested in Kumasi two weeks ago for indulging in self-reconnections in their homes during the house-to-house inspection by the ECG and the police, adding, “they were fined and freed.”
The ECG official noted that all the announcements and warnings by the ECG to users in the region to refrain from self-reconnection seemed to have fallen on deaf ears “and we have decided to arrest the culprits to face the law.”
Mr Baidoo stated that the special operation, which is targeting residents and industries, would not be a nine-day wonder, indicating that the ECG would chase all its debtors and people who engage in illegal connections to face the law.
On his part, ASP Mohammed Yusif Tanko, PRO of the Ashanti Regional Police, said the ECG had consistently complained to the police over how some unscrupulous people were using power illegally through self-reconnections.
He said the police therefore decided to assist the ECG to arrest the culprits, stressing that the arrested people would be arraigned soon to face the law.
<<Print>>