The Abuakwa Divisional Police Command has arrested a 31-year-old man for allegedly stealing prepaid meters from customers.

The suspect was initially apprehended by residents of Abuakwa Agogo Newsite on Monday, July 7, 2025 and handed over to the police to help in further investigation.

Mr George Amoah, Ashanti West Regional Manager of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), who made this known, said the suspect, a resident at Sepaase in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality, moved from one place to another to steal meters.

He noted that in some instances, the suspect replaced the stolen meters with fake post-paid meters and installed the stolen meters for customers, which enabled customers to consume electricity for free.

This, he said, negatively affected the revenue collection of the ECG as the free consumption of power was on the blind side of the company.

Additionally, the victims of stolen meters faced the inconvenience of filing police complaints and making payments for the replacement of the meters at the ECG.

“Lately, a lot of customers have thronged our offices to report stolen meters, which was an inconvenience to our cherished customers as they had to go through the stress of obtaining a police report and later paying the cost of meter replacement before getting their stolen meters replaced,” said Mr Amoah.

Due to the increase in the stealing of prepaid meters, he said the ECG intensified public education to create awareness, and that initiative had yielded good results.

Again, the company was collaborating with the security services to clamp down on such illegal activities, which brought huge losses to the company and citizens.

Mr Amoah commended residents for their extreme vigilance and arrest of the suspect, as the menace of meter thievery was soaring in the region.

He urged citizens to continue to help the company to prevent illegal activities such as illegal power connections, meter thievery, transformer vandalism and others against the ECG.