"ECG Staff" swindles customers to take care of pregnant wife

A man who posed as a staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and extorted various sums of money from power consumers at Tarkwa in the Western Region has been arrested.

Steven Cobbinah, an electrician, confessed to swindling consumers after posing as a staff of the ECG and either disconnecting or threatening to disconnect those owing various sums on their credit meters.

He demanded GH¢20 and those who failed to pay were disconnected and their fuses taken away, to be restored only after they settled the GH¢20 demand. He would leave his personal mobile phone contacts with disconnected consumers for them to call him whenever they were ready with the cash.

Cobbinah, dressed in an overcoat to look like an ECG worker to swindle several customers in the Tarkwa municipality, was confronted by suspicious residents of Tamso Estate who dragged him to the ECG office.

Upon coming face-to-face with ECG officials, he confessed he was not an employee of ECG but that his wife was pregnant and almost due so he needed the money to meet the expenses.

The suspect

ECG officials said at the time of the arrest, the suspect had a huge amount of money in his pocket along with fuses he had removed from the meters of victims.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Regional Public Relations Officer of ECG, Mr. Philip Osei-Bonsu confirmed that the suspect who had since been handed over to the police was not a staff of ECG.

Some customers, according to ECG reported the activities of the Cobbinah and when contacted on the number he left behind, the suspect told the ECG officials it was a wrong line.

The PRO urged customers to promptly contact ECG offices for an explanation of issues they are not sure of and assured that the power distributor was committed to quality service.