Electrician busted for meter theft

An electrician, Gilbert Edo Abefa, has been apprehended by the Dzodze police in the Volta Region for allegedly selling and installing illegal electricity meters to unsuspecting residents.

Gilbert was arrested dawn of Tuesday, July 12, 2016, during a swoop by the police.

The swoop was conducted after the Revenue Protection Unit (RPU) of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) had conducted a monitoring exercise in the area recently.

Gilbert Abefa, who is being prosecuted before the Aflao circuit court, is on remand to reappear on Tuesday, 26th July, 2016.

Speaking after the arrest, the head of ECG’s Revenue Protection Unit in the Volta Region, Richard Bavor, said while on its regular operation to identify and rid the system of any illegalities, the team was alarmed by the huge number of installed meters which had not been captured by the ECG.

“The high number of uncaptured meters we initially came across made us suspicious, and so we decided to conduct further investigations to determine the source of these meters,” he said. Mr Bavor added that “With the help of the townsfolk, we identified the single source of all these meters which had been installed on the blind side of the ECG, which owners were consuming electricity without paying.”

Preliminary investigations revealed that about 95 of those meters had been installed since April 2016. Gilbert, in connivance with other electricians in the town, sold each meter for between GH¢ 300.00 and GH¢ 450.00.

Residents who purchased such meters included those who required new service and others whose power supply had been disconnected by the ECG for non-payment of bills. Officials of the ECG have already begun capturing the meters for billing.

The Volta Regional General Manager of the ECG, Ing. Joseph Forson, who appreciated and commended the support of the Ghana Police Service, revealed that the campaign to audit all electricity service connections in the region had been revamped to make it more sustainable and effective.

“Our target is to make our distribution system ‘illegality-free’ within a very short time, so we have reviewed our methods of identifying and stopping all kinds of power theft in the system,” he said and cautioned customers to deal directly with the district offices of the company to avoid any embarrassments, or being swindled by miscreants.