Three persons have been convicted and fined by an Accra Circuit Court for illegally connecting electricity to their homes and business.
They were sentenced on their own plea of guilty of connecting power illegally and theft of power.
They were fined in excess of GH₵1,000 and were to pay their fines before 2 p.m. on the day or risk being placed in police custody.
In addition, they were charged sums between GH¢240 and GH¢480 as compensation to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
A total of more than GH¢2,000 was recouped by the ECG from the accused persons by close of day.
The presiding judge, Mr Worlanyo Kotoku, warned them that for the charge of stealing, they were supposed to be given custodial sentences but he had been lenient in the hope that they would go and ‘sin no more’.
No mercy for power thieves
In an interview with the Daily Graphic after the court proceedings, the Manager in charge of prosecutions at the ECG, Mr Paul Assibi Abariga, who represented the state, said the ECG was committed to ridding the nation of people who had made it their business to cheat by illegally connecting power.
He warned that the exercise, which was national in character, would not spare anyone caught for power theft.
“It is unfair that while a good number of Ghanaians are faithfully paying for what they consume, others decide to cheat the system. That is unpatriotic. The right action would be taken to ensure that the right things are done in order to safeguard power efficiency for all,” he said.
Special exercise
The ECG, in collaboration with the security agencies, commenced a special national exercise from Saturday, August 1, 2015, aimed at clamping down on persons who had connected power illegally.
The exercise involved visits to all customers of the company to ascertain the nature of their electricity connection and the state of electricity meters.
The Managing Director of the company, Mr Robert Dwamena, had said the move had been occasioned by wanton theft of power on the part of some unscrupulous elements who undermined the revenue drive of the company.
He said in spite of the existence of loss control outfits in the company, the theft of power was now becoming “overwhelmingly high”.
Source: Daily Graphic
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