Court jails meter thief
The Akyem Oda District Magistrate’s Court has jailed Kwame Badu, a member of a group which steals electricity meters belonging to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to 18 months imprisonment with hard labour.
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Badu, a 19-year-old employee of an Oda-based private timber firm, was jailed for 12 months for conspiracy and 18 months for stealing. The sentences are to run concurrently.
The court, presided over by Mr Albert Annoh-Owusu, issued a warrant for the arrest of two accomplices, Nana Kwame alias Calypo and Kofi Amakye, who are on the run.
According to the Oda District Manager of the ECG, Mr Dan Mensah Asare, between November, last year and June, this year, thieves had stolen 40 of the company’s electricity meters, depriving the affected customers of power.
The facts of the case as presented by the prosecutor, Detective Inspector Fabian Sallah, were that, for some time now, the ECG had been experiencing theft of some of its electricity meters fixed for customers at Oda.
Between 12 noon and 1 a.m. on May 26, 2013, Badu, Nana Kwame and Amakye went to the shop of one David Sarkwa Donkor at Oda and stole four electricity meters fixed in the shop.
People in the area, including Mr Kwaku Osunkpeh, a security officer of Assemblies of God Church in the vicinity, who saw them in the act, gave them a chase but they managed to escape into a nearby bush.
A search was conducted in the area and the four meters were retrieved.
When Mr Osunkpeh was patrolling the area that dawn, he saw Badu bare-footed hiding behind a wooden structure where two of the stolen meters were found.
When he asked Badu what he was doing at the place at that hour, he could not give any tangible answer so he caused his arrest and handed him over to the police for investigations.
By Samuel Kyei-Boateng/Ghana