POWER THIEF CAGED 6 MONTHS

The increasing spate of illegal connections in Tamale was dealt a hefty blow when the Tamale District Court 1 slapped a power thief; Wahab Shiraz with a jail term of six months in hard labour without the option of a fine.

In a sentence that could best be described as a triple whammy, the Magistrate of the court, His Worship Justice Derrick Annan, in addition to the 6-month jail term, also slapped the convict with a fine of five hundred (500) penalty units amounting to six thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS6,000.00) to be paid to the state.

Additionally, the convict is to pay a whooping amount of Ten Thousand andNinety-Six Ghana Cedis, Fifty-Five Pesewas

(GHS10,096.55p) being the sum total of estimated power (electricity) stolen from the utility provider, NEDCo.

The court, in reading out the sentence, indicated in unambiguous terms that if the convict should fail to pay the fine of GHS6,000.00, the fine shall automatically convert to an additional jail term of 7months thereby making his cumulative jail term 13months.

The convict, Wahab Shiraz who hails from Bulpella, a suburb of Tamale pleaded guilty to the charge of “interference with electricity distribution system” contrary to Rule 41(2A) and 1(6) of the Electricity Supply and Distribution Rules 2005 (L.I. 1816), and was convicted on his own plea.

Wahab Shiraz’s unpatriotic activities were discovered in December, 2023 during the mop up leg of the Mass Revenue Mobilization Exercise Phase 3; a giant step NEDCo has taken to help curb the rising illegal connections menace in Tamale, and was issued with an illegal connection notice to report to the office for the necessary investigations to be conducted but he failed to show up. 

NEDCo was therefore left with no option but to fall back on the Nation’s justice system available to her for redress. The matter was reported to the police in Tamale who after going through the motions, eventually ended up in court with the case and the rest, as they say, is history.

Speaking to NEDCo NEWS at the precincts of the court, lawyer for NEDCo in the case, Ms Esther Yirbom   urged the general public, especially those who find themselves entangled in the web of illegal connections to take advantage of the initial amicable resolution avenues such as owning up, payment for power stolen, signing a bond of good behaviour, etc. that NEDCo provides to illegal connection suspects since they may serve as mitigating factors should the matter end up in court. 

She stressed that those avenues in themselves do not extinguish the offence committed but may help reduce the punishment prescribed for such crimes by law.  She advised the public to desist from all forms of illegal connections in order to escape the fate that befell Wahab Shiraz.

By: CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS