The exercise was to holdfast on consumers who bypassed the newly installed prepaid meters.
Nine persons nabbed in Tamale for illegal connection following police-military operation
Nine suspected persons have been arrested with others served with a court summon after a joint police-military operation led by officials from the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) in the Tamale metropolis on power theft.
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Forty-eight percent of the power consumed in Tamale is lost to illegal connections.
Hundreds of meters have been tampered with through illegal connections.
Communities that have the highest rate of power theft were visited such as Sabon Zongo, Gulpela, Banvim, and Nyoni
The operation was met with fierce resistance from a cross-section of the public.
However, the presence of the military deterred the irate consumers from attacking the operation team.
Samuel Marvellous Kumi, Northern Area Loss Control Officer at VRA-NEDCO revealed to journalists after the exercise that power theft and illegal connections in Tamale are alarming.
He mentioned that over 48 to 49 percent of power has been lost to illegal theft.
“Every other house is involved in illegal connection and this is robbing the company of millions of Cedis yet you expect better services with this attitude.
“We will write a statement and present it to the police for the suspects to be prosecuted. This time around, we are charging the suspects, then handing them over to the court for them to be punished following the law.
“We serve a serious warning to the general public especially our consumers to desist from stealing power because all persons found culpable will be severely punished."
He said the Company will deal with all the persons found guilty of tampering with the new prepaid meters.
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