Nine senior officers of the Akyem Oda branch of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have been arrested for allegedly stealing electrical cables belonging to the company. They are Ibrahim Bashiru, 28, electrician; Augustine Abban, 30, senior electrical technician; Sulemana Alhassan, 39, linesman; Eric Nyakpo, 43, driver; Christopher Kweitey, 34, linesman; Charles Ahiavi, 36, linesman; Isaac Tetteh Kuma, 57, driver; Samuel Ampoma, 40, driver, and Maxwell Mensah, 42, senior technician. They were arraigned before the Akyem Swedru Circuit Court, which remanded the first seven accused persons into prison custody but granted Ampoma and Mensah a GH¢10,000 bail on health grounds after they had produced medical reports to support their claim. The court, presided over by Mr Kofi Akroviah, issued a warrant for the arrest of an accomplice, Raymond Boamah, who is at large. The accused persons, whose pleas were not taken, will reappear before the court on June 15, 2010. The facts of the case, as given by the prosecutor, Detective Chief Inspector K. Ahenkorah, were that for some time now there had been a series of cable thefts in the Birim South municipality, resulting in blackouts on some occasions. The management of the ECG, therefore, lodged a complaint with the Oda Divisional Police Task Force to investigate the matter and apprehend the criminals. A surveillance team was set up by the Oda Divisional Police Commander and on May 30, 2010, the team had information that some officials of the Oda branch of the ECG had been selling various specifications of copper cables to a group of scrap dealers near the residence of Okyeame Poku and behind the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) Depot in Oda. Consequently, the police organised a swoop, resulting in the recovery of five coils of copper cables on the premises of the scrap dealers. In the process, Abban and Alhassan were arrested. During interrogation by the police, they mentioned seven members of staff of the ECG as accomplices and they were subsequently apprehended. Meanwhile, the police have intensified their investigations in order to arrest more suspects. Counsel for the seven remanded suspects, Mr A. E. Attafuah, applied for bail for them but it was refused by the court. The court was of the view that the granting of bail was premature because it could frustrate the police in their investigations. Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana