Man in Police grips for illegally connecting power

The Amasaman Divisional Police Command has arrested a 40-year-old trader, Kofi Mensah, for stealing power and reconnecting to the national grid after officials of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Ltd. disconnected him for illegal connection. Speaking to the media, Mr Kingsley Opoku, the ECG Amasaman District Manager, said that on one of its usual monitoring exercises, field staff identified a customer, who was using an unauthorised meter at 'Nii Aryee', a suburb of Pokuase. A closer inspection revealed that the meter had been illegally moved from another District so, the customer was disconnected and directed to visit the office to regularise his relationship with the Company. Mr Opoku said the customer refused to visit the office but illegally reconnected himself to the grid. 'Anytime he was disconnected, the customer reconnected himself without recourse to the Company. 'We were further alarmed when we realised that the customer had now used a cable to directly connect his premises to the low volt age cables that serve the community. 'He had also extended this illegal supply to other customers in the area,' he said. Mr Opoku said the actions of the suspect not only posed a danger to himself and other customers but also led to technical challenges with the transformer that served the community. The suspect initially resisted attempts by the staff of the Company to disconnect him, prompting the involvement of the police, who ensured that the disconnection was done. Mr Emmanuel Akinie, the ECG Accra West General Manager, warned customers to desist from interfering with the Company's distribution network. He said such interferences did not only pose a danger to the unauthorised individuals but could cause fire outbreaks, leading to damage to properties. 'We are consistently reviewing our strategies to identify, surcharge and prosecute any persons found to be stealing power or engaged in other forms of illegalities that negatively affect our system', he said. The Accra West region has eight operation al districts. are Ablekuma, Achimota, Amasaman, Bortianor, Dansoman, Kaneshie, Korlebu and Nsawam. Source: Ghana News Agency