54-year-old man arrested for replacing ECG meters with fake ones

A 54-year-old man who has been identified as someone who installs fake meters for people at Kunsu in the Ahafo Ano South West District of the Ashanti Region has been arrested.

The police in Abuakwa, together with the Revenue Protection Unit of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), arrested John Fofie after he was accused of replacing people’s debt-infested post-paid meters with fake ones in the community.

This was uncovered when the team was performing its routine checks in some homes, where it detected that instead of the meters the ECG had installed, there were fake ones in their place.

After interrogating the homeowners, it was identified that John Fofie was the one behind these criminal acts.

He was subsequently traced and arrested.

A report by 3news.com said that this came up during the exercise by the ECG, which has so far retrieved GH¢50 million, with the expectation that it will increase this to all the GH¢1.2billion owed to the power distribution company.

The report added that the team, upon searching his room, found seven fake post-paid meters, which have all since been confiscated by ECG.

The Ashanti Regional Director of the Revenue Protection Unit of the ECG, Ing. Kofi Danso, said that this is only the first step with regards to this case.

He told the media that his outfit is now following up on who it is that illegally transferred the meters to John Fofie, including other culprits.

“Such illegal meters are also fake and have been affixed with stickers to appear as though it was coming from the Electricity Company of Ghana.

“We will also not rest on our oars but work hard to arrest and prosecute perpetrators or any persons with intentions to undertake such criminal activities. Three meter bypasses were discovered. The culprits weren’t available. The police have asked them to report themselves to the police station,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the ECG officials also detected 50 fake prepaid meters at the Race Course Market in Kumasi, the report added.

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