Over 100 households disconnected at Oyarifa for engaging in illegal connection

By Selorm GBORBIDZI, Accra

Officials of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Revenue Mobilisation Task Force on Friday disconnected over a hundred houses at Oyarifa ‘Anointing Down’ in the Greater Accra Region from the national grid for engaging in illegal connection.

The exercise was a follow up to an earlier disconnection exercise which the electricity supplier has done in the fast developing community, just a week prior.

The task force which was led by the Accra East Regional Commercial Manager, Jonathan Asante, took down illegally connected cables which were supplying electricity directly to homes from the ECG supply lines, without going through the metres.

Addressing the media that went along on the operation, he explained that the communities were officially operating on the blind side of ECG as they have not been captured unto the ECG’s database.

He also showed the press samples of confiscated meters which he stated did not have the approval of the Energy Commission to be used in the country.

These meters which were apparently smuggled into the country from places like Togo were embossed with ‘Ministry of Power’ inscription, with the aim of mimicking those metres procured under the Self-Help Electrification Project (SHEP) under the erstwhile Mahama administration.

He explained that these metres are a potential fire hazard, as they have not been inspected to ensure that they were up to standard.

He also stated that these metres consume about 2000kwHr of electricity monthly in the Accra East Region, causing serious financial loss to the company.

He said, “Within our region, we estimate that there about 20,000 of such metres within [the Accra East Region] alone.”

If each household is consuming about 100 units, that’s 2000kwh, and even if you are selling a unit at GH₵100, you are looking at about GH₵2 million each month,” he disclosed.

He however bemoaned the lack of cooperation from citizens, who refuse to divulge the sources of these metres.

He cautioned that the ECG will not relent in its bid to rid the country of these fake metres.

The ECG officials directed those who were found to be using genuine ECG metres, but have not been paying their bills to visit their offices for redress of their defaulting status.

The Public Relations Officer for the ECG Accra East Region, Mary Eshun-Oppong, explained that “because these people are not in our system, we will serve them with a notice to come to the office and then we’ll take them through the process, so when they get the metre, we add the penalty – everything – so that they pay.”

She further explained that these penalties are calculated based on the gadgets being used in a household, and when the connection was done.

The Assembly Member for the area, Peter Cudjoe Geh, expressed his displeasure with the disconnection exercise.

He also admitted to helping the community members procure the illegal metres, promising to avail himself for investigations.

He however said that the metres were acquired from a colleague Assembly Member whom he did not name.

He said, “I as a person didn’t go to the ECG offices. What I know is that a colleague has access to those metres, and whenever my people need those services, I’m able to connect them to those services.”

“I cannot tell [where the metres are coming from].”

The Assemblyman lamented the slow pace at which community members were served by the electricity provider, noting that it has been one of their long standing concerns.

Asked how much it cost to procure a metre, Geh divulged that these metres were acquired for about GH₵400.

On security in the neighbourhood, he said he would contact the MCE for the area to get the situation handled as it was inevitable that the community would be plunged into darkness.

Community members who were visibly displeased with the disconnection exercise expressed worry about their security since they expected the entire community to be plunged into darkness.

They worried that the situation might lead to robberies and armed attacks, since those were already occurring in the community, before the exercise.

In a follow up interview Sunday, Geh, told The Finder that he and other community leaders had taken to patrolling the community to ensure that security was upheld.

He also stated that the Ayi-Mensah police has been informed of the situation to enable them take charge of the situation.

He also said that he has had to go round interacting with community members to persuade them against reconnecting their houses to the grid, while they plan to pay a visit to the ECG today to find a solution to the situation.

As part of the agenda for the meeting will be a plan for installing street lights on the poles.

He stated that so far there have been no reports of robberies or attacks within the community since Friday.

The Assemblyman also said that from his engagement with some of his community members, some produced audit reports titled “Auditing of ECG metre” detailing the region, district, customer name and number, the metre number and how long the customer has had the problem, as well as the ECG pole number, allegedly procured from ECG which shows that they have been captured unto the ECG’s system.

He also stated that as part of the concerns they hope to table at the meeting, will be a request for ECG credit-vending and complaint stations to be erected in the Ayi-Mensah community to facilitate interactions between the supplier and the community.