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The trial of two staff members of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Eric Darko and Perfect Agbo, who allegedly stole 83 transformers of the company valued at over GH¢1.6 million, has started at an Accra Circuit Court.

The two, a male and a female, have pleaded not guilty. Agbo was a maintenance engineer stationed at the Dodowa district of the company while Darko is a Boom truck driver.

A third accused person, Samuel Frimpong, is currently at large.

When the case was called last Saturday, the prosecution, led by Mr Paul Assibi Abariga, called two witnesses to the stand.

Witness’ testimony
The first witness to be called was Paa Kwesi Hagan, who told the court that he had been instructed by the Chief Security Officer of the ECG, Mr Omane Boateng, to be on the lookout on the open market for transformers belonging to the company that had been stolen.

He said subsequently, through two middle persons whom he did not know, he was led to the second accused person (Agbo) under the pretext of buying a transformer.

Hagan said they met at a place around the Zenith College, at La, near the Ghana Trade Fair Centre and he told Agbo that he was interested in buying a transformer.

He said Agbo then instructed another man, by name Festus, to bring the transformer to that location.

Hagan told the court that while there, he negotiated the price with Agbo and they settled on GH¢15,000. 

Not long after, he said, the transformer was brought in a truck, following which Agbo said she was going somewhere and, therefore, asked him to examine it.

She then handed over some documents and left. Meanwhile, Hagan told the other party that he had sent a picture of the transformer via whatsapp to his uncle and was expecting him to arrive with the money.

Trapped
That uncle turned out to be the chief security officer of the ECG, who arrived at the meeting place  in the company of two plain-clothes policemen with some money in a bag.

Hagan then pointed to Festus as the man who would be collecting the money, following which the police arrested Festus and the truck driver.

Festus, he said, had tried to reach Agbo by phone several times but was not successful, after which he led the police to the house of another person known as Gidiglo, where they discovered two other transformers, one 200 KVA and the other, a 500 KVA.

Upon examination, it was realised that the name plate of the transformers, which provided details of ownership, had been removed.

When asked where the name plates were, Hagan said Festus answered that they had been instructed by Agbo to remove the name plates and sell the transformers.

When Festus took the stand, he told the court that on April 6, 2014 Agbo took him to Dzorwulu to check on a 500 KVA transformer that had its name plate removed, which they later conveyed in a truck.

He said Agbo had left in her car and instructed him and the driver of the truck to send the transformer to Gidiglo’s house.

Festus said as they were about to enter Gidiglo’s compound, he saw Agbo driving out of the house and she instructed him to deposit the 500 KVA transformer in that house and convey the 200 KVA transformer to Hagan at a location around the Zenith College.

The court, presided over by Justice Helen Amoah, adjourned the case to May 23, 2015.