Police grabs imposter

A middle-aged self-employed man is in the grips of the Commercial Crimes Unit of the Ghana Police Headquarters for posing as an officer of the Ghana Armed Forces, attached to the 42 Engineers Regiment.

The suspect, who gave his name as Bernard Eshun, was arrested by some staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Accra West Region and handed over to the Police.

Marcus Yeboah, an ECG staff with the Revenue Protection Unit, said in 2017, the suspect introduced himself as an officer of the Ghana National Fire and Rescue Service when he led some ECG customers to plead for leniency, after they had been busted for tampering with the meter in their house and using power for free.

The customers were charged for the power they had illegally consumed and a new prepaid meter, loaded with the penalty charge was installed to replace the tampered meter.

Yeboah continued that monitoring of the customers’ accounts later revealed that even though they were barred from purchasing prepaid credits till the penalty charge was fully paid, the customers had not made any payments.

A field investigation revealed that they had bypassed the new meter and were using power for free and upon interrogation of the household, Eshun was mentioned as the one who facilitated the illegal connection.

The customers claimed that the suspect collected GH¢3,000.00 to pay to ECG on their behalf and the entire household was then disconnected again.

Eshun showed up in the ECG Regional Office, this time, fully clothed in military uniform to seek an intervention for the disconnected customers, which made the staff suspicious and once he was not able to prove his military identity, he was arrested and handed over to the police, Yeboah added.

Engineer George Appiah-Kubi, the Accra West General Manager, cautioned the general public against dealing with persons who were not staff of ECG and indicated that where customers were unsure of the identity of anyone purporting to work for the Company, an identity card should be demanded, or the Company should be alerted.

The Commercial Crime Unit is further investigating the case, he noted.