18-year-old cable thief gets 16 months jail sentence

The ECG indicated that Sylvester Asare stole an unenergized cable of 3×185mm² in size. The Agona Swedru District Court in the Central Region has sentenced an 18-year-old underground electrical cable thief, Sylvester Asare, to sixteen months imprisonment. He was caught by residents at Otabilkrom, a suburb of Agona Swedru in the Central Region, on Thursday, February 8, 2018, at dawn, while trying to bolt with stolen cables belonging to the Electricity Company of Ghana [ECG].

The ECG indicated that Sylvester Asare stole an unenergized cable of 3×185mm² in size, which was about 5 metres long. According to some residents who handed him to the police, the suspect is a coconut seller but is also noted for such unscrupulous acts. The court, presided over by His Lordship Isaac Apeatu, last Wednesday found the suspect guilty and sentenced him to sixteen months in jail.

The Agona Swedru District of the ECG has been battling high operational cost over the years and has attributed the situation partly to massive cable theft. The District Manager of the ECG, Ahmed Kwesi Adams, warned that the sentence should serve as a deterrent to other criminals in the area, reiterating that the company is putting measures in place to prevent such theft incidents from occurring. He also pleaded that “residents in our various communities should be vigilant in order to protect assets belonging to the state and other institutions”.