Vandalising of installations in Ashanti on the rise — ECG

Some unknown individuals have vandalised and stolen essential parts of a 500KVA ground-mounted transformer at the Central Business District (CBD) in Adum near the Old Melcom building in Kumasi.

The thieves made away with fuses, cables, distribution pillars and other essential components of the transformer.

The act has resulted in a prolonged outage, which has led to the disruption of business within the Adum central business district.

Speaking to the development, the Public Relations Officer of ECG's Ashanti West Region, Benjamin Obeng Antwi, said that the menace of vandalising ECG installations in the Ashanti Region was on the rise and was affecting quality service delivery in the region.

“Lately, people have been vandalising our poles, cables and transformers with the latest being a 500KVA transformer at Adum near the Old Melcom. This is not the first time such a thing has happened, as any time we go there to replace a fuse, these individuals go there to steal it,” he said.

Assurance

The ECG PRO said this action had plunged thousands of customers within Adum into darkness, but the company was working around the clock to restore power supply to affected customers.

“This illegal act by these individuals has caused customers to experience an outage, which is affecting businesses and livelihoods, but our engineers are currently working assiduously to restore power supply to the affected customers before the close of day on Tuesday," he stated, appealing to customers and businesses affected to exercise restraint while the situation was being addressed.

Mr Obeng Antwi described the development as unfortunate and urged the general public to own ECG installations in their various communities and be vigilant to prevent such theft cases.

“Currently, businesses are affected because once the transformer is vandalized, the power supply will be curtailed; so imagine if there was a hospital there, how will patients survive? If there was a school there, how will students learn? We humbly appeal to the public to help us curb the menace of transformer theft and also the setting of fires to burn poles.

“Without the help of our customers and the general public, we cannot stop this act alone, so please let’s be vigilant. Let’s own and protect ECG installations (poles, cables, and transformers) in our respective electoral areas.

"We have changed a lot of fuses at Adum for a couple of weeks now, and we can’t continue like this. People keep breaking the locks and stealing the fuse. When you see anyone around an ECG pole, please go and ask them if they work at ECG. You can identify the real ECG workers by their overall coats, ID Cards and reflectors.

"Also, ECG faults and maintenance teams always move in groups or teams and not alone, so if you see a single individual around our installation, please question them. When they act suspicious, please report them to the police,” he said.