Two ECG staff imposters weep after being fined by court for extorting money from customers

An electrician and a mason wept uncontrollably as an Accra Circuit Court fined them for posing as Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) staff and taking money from some customers over illegal connections.

Nana Adu Gyamfi, a 33-year-old electrician, and Derrick Ntow Adumah, a 22-year-old mason, collected between GHC20 and GHC50 from ECG customers whom they claimed had engaged in illegal connections.

The two accused persons were charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime: intentionally or knowingly interfering with suppliers’ distribution, defrauding by false pretenses, and stealing an ECG meter.

Gyamfi and Adumah pleaded guilty to all the charges.

The court, presided over by Mr. Samuel Bright Acquah, convicted them on their own plea, fined them GHC 1,200 on each count of default, and sentenced them to six months imprisonment each.

Sentences are to run concurrently.

The prosecution led by Mr. Paul Assibi Abarigah, Director of Prosecutions at ECG, said the complainant, Gabriel Akinade, was the District Technical Officer of ECG, Dansoman, and the accused persons were residents of Dansoman, Accra.

The prosecution said on March 25, 2024, the accused persons went to the Zone Six suburb of Dansoman, moving from house to house, and introduced themselves to one Magaret Donkor and some ECG customers within Dansoman and its environs, saying they were workers of the ECG on-meter monitoring operation.

The prosecutor told the court that the accused persons in their operations disconnected and removed the installed ECG meter number P35765641 from a house over an illegal connection.

It said the accused persons in the said operation demanded money ranging between GHC20 and GHC50 from the customers.

The prosecution said a witness in the case suspected them and demanded their identity cards, which the accused persons could not produce.

The witness then raised an alarm and, with the help of the people around, arrested the accused persons at the Dansoman ECG office.

The case was reported to the ECG Investigations Unit, and during the investigations, two reflective jackets, a flat board with an ECG-printed logo at the back, screwdrivers, voltmeters, and ECG meters with serial numbers P35774560 and P35765641 were found on the accused persons.

The prosecution said the accused persons, in their caution statements, admitted the offense, and Gyamfi mentioned that it was Adumah who introduced him into the "business.”