An Assemblyman for the Logove electoral area in the Ketu-South Municipality of the Volta Region, Dick Dogbey Amedoda has been arrested by the Agbozume District Police for illegally tapping power from the national grid.
Mr. Amedoda was arrested after personnel of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) discovered that he had replaced his old meter which was disconnected for indebtedness with a new meter which is nonexistent in the records of the ECG.
The police were alerted by the staff of the ECG, when they detected the illegality while on routine monitoring operations. He was subsequently arrested for investigations to commence.
Explaining circumstances of the illegality, the ECG District Manager for Denu, Mrs. Christine Hadzi said, the Assembly man who operated a corn mill in town, owed the ECG about Thirty-One Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢31,000.00).
Following threats to disconnect power supply, he paid One Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 1,000.00) and all attempts to retrieve the remaining arrears proved futile, leading to a disconnection of his facility. Mr. Amedoda then tapped supply to the corn mill from his residence. This was disconnected as well when ECG officials detected it.
“Weeks after disconnecting his facility, there was no approach from the customer to either settle the debt or seek a payment plan to clear the arrears”, she said.
“We were thus suspicious and so, on a visit to his corn mill, we discovered that he had personally replaced the meter which had been disconnected due to debt, with another meter, and connected power supply”, she added.
It is currently not clear the source of the new meter which was installed by Mr. Amedoda, though the ECG has indicated that no records of the meter exist in its system. Police are continuing investigations, to arraign him before court.
From Fred Duodu, Ho (k.duodu@yahoo.com)