A possible electrical fire disaster beckons the people of Hwakpo even as the Electricity Company of Ghana ECG, loses revenue due to illegal connections by some quack electricians taking advantage of the gullibility of some residents of Hwakpo.
Dangerous among these connections and risky to human lives and properties, is another connection at house number HW1/004 where electricity had been tapped from an unknown source to a poultry farm about 500 meters away.
Between the supplying point and the poultry farm is a tiny long cable lying loosely on weak planted bamboo trees.
This seeming illegal connection is about 150 meters away from the only public school from the Hwakpo junction.
Interrogating a few of the residents on the seeming power theft, they said about a fortnight ago, the owner of the poultry farm illegally tapped electricity from the residence of an aged old woman to the farm.
Later realising the supposed power theft is from their meter, the son of the old woman, whose name they gave us Richard, currently in a hideout, angrily disconnected the connection and tore the tiny cables from the source.
The owner of the poultry farm reported Richard to the Sege District Police for damaging his electrical cables worth GHȻ540. And on hearing that the police were after him for shredding the cables of the poultry farmer who had allegedly tapped electricity illegally from his mother’s house, Richard fled the village into hiding.
A visit to Hwakpo last Monday, after a police source at the Sege District Police Station had confirmed the residents’ report and subsequent complaint by the poultry farmer, whose name the police source gave as David Nomotey, it noticed that the owner of the poultry farm had, this time, tapped the electricity from House number HW1/004, about 500 meters to the farm.
Three young men in the house prevented our reporter from going closer to the meter but the latter observed that tiny long cables, measuring about 2mm, had been connected from an unknown source in the house to the poultry farm.
The cables hang loosely on several loose bamboo sticks planted along the way to the poultry farm.
Chief Inspector Acquaye stationed at the Sege District Police Station is reported to be handling the matter, and when contacted he said the police would prosecute Richard for causing damage to David Nomotey’s electrical cables worth GHȻ540.
He declined commenting on whether or not the police visited the village to verify the source of the electricity to identify any illegality in the connection before charging Richard for the damage to the cables.
Meanwhile, the ongoing illegal electricity connection from house number HW1/004 to the poultry farm has been reported to the Tema Regional office of the ECG to dispatch its team to the area to ascertain the correctness of the connection and whether the cables for the transportation of the electricity between the two points were of standard.
