Police refute claims of alleged power theft at Osu barracks, Kumasi Central police station

The Police Administration refuted claims of alleged illegal connection and power theft at Osu Police Barracks and the Kumasi Central Police Station.

The Police noted that as a government institution, the payment of electricity by the police is centrally managed and not directly paid for by individual police officers or commands and, therefore, there is no incentive for the Service or any of its officers to steal electricity as alleged.

Surprised by these allegations, the Police Administration said it caused investigations to be conducted into the matter which revealed that at the Osu Barracks, the ECG disconnected three buildings because they had no electricity meters. A similar situation happened in Kumasi, where one building was disconnected because it didn't have its dedicated meter.

The law enforcement agency said it checks from its records indicate that the situation at both the Osu Police Barracks and the Kumasi Central Police Station has existed for some years now.

Investigation further established that all the connections at the Osu barracks and the Kumasi Central Police Station were done by the ECG directly to the poles since the ECG had indicated that it did not have any meters available at the time. In both instances the connections were done by officials of the ECG.

After the investigation, at the instance of the Inspector-General of Police, a meeting was held with the management of ECG where the outcome of their investigation to the effect that the police had not been involved in illegal connection or power theft was made known to them; which they accepted and expressed regret about the situation.

After the investigation, and prior to the meeting, all Police Regional Commands were directed to officially invite and work with ECG officials within their areas of operation to reexamine all existing electricity connections and metering in all Police facilities across the country including the possibility of installing bulk meters instead of individual meters for each building as has been the case over the years.

The Police administration is, therefore, calling on the public to disregard the false claims of power theft and illegal connections levelled against it since there is no basis for the allegations.