The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is to drag some sureties before court following the failure of six persons accused of stealing electricity to appear before the court.
The accused persons have failed to appear six consecutive times after they had been granted bail by the police, following their arrest for allegedly stealing power.
Their sureties had signed and guaranteed to produce them for further questioning or prosecution but the accused persons had failed to turn up for court proceedings despite several attempts by the ECG prosecution department to get them to do so since the beginning of the trial in 2015.
During the first court sitting in 2016, the accused persons in all the seven cases which were to be heard failed to show up.
At the end of the sitting, the court presided over by Mr Worlanyo Kotoko adjourned the hearing to January 16, 2016.
The decision Speaking to the Daily Graphic after the court proceedings, the manager in charge of prosecutions at the ECG, Mr Paul Assibi Abariga, said the company had been compelled to take the decision to drag the sureties before the court because the accused persons had been absent in court.
"We will not wait forever for them to continue to stay out of the court," he said and explained that it could be possible they did not get notice to appear before the court or they had notices through their sureties but decided not to appear".
In 2015, Mr Abariga said 148 cases were heard by the special court, and added that the number would reduce because the company intended to reduce power theft through the special exercise.
"We will work harder to discover every individual, business and organisation that is stealing power. Why should some pay, while others enjoy it for free?. We think we have sent enough signals to the populace that they will be brought to book for stealing power.
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