The Management of Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) in Accra has caused the arrest and subsequent conviction of a 20-year-old Nigerian, Abdul Abubakari Sadiq for stealing water meter.

In a press statement issued on February 29, GWCL said Abdul Abubakari Sadiq was convicted by the Weija Circuit Court on his own plea of intentionally and unlawfully causing damage to the meter belonging to GWCL.

The Court presided over by Justice James Kojo Botah on February 27, leveled two charges against Sadiq.

While he pleaded guilty to the first charge of intentionally and unlawfully causing damage to public property, he claimed he was innocent on count two, which sought to charge him for stealing (although he was caught with the meter in his sack).

Abubakari Sadiq was asked to either pay a fine of Ghȼ2,400 or face a 6-month jail term. He was also asked to reappear before the Court on 11th April 2024 for a hearing on count two of his charge.

On February 23, 2024, the statement said Abdul Abubakari Sadiq was caught by a resident of Kasoa Amanfrom Toptown with a water meter and a standpipe tap in his sack.

Sadiq, who was reported to have been seen strolling in the area with his scrap dealer’s truck entered a compound and broke the meter there, thinking there was no one at home.

The noise of the breakage woke an occupant of the house up, and Sadiq was accosted and sent to the Amanfrom Police Station. He was subsequently arraigned before the Weija Circuit Court and convicted on February 27, 2024.

In September 2023, Mr Marvin Godwin, also a Nigerian man, was arrested in Kasoa Nyanyano for meter theft and was convicted by her Worship Linda Amissah at the Ofaakor Circuit Court. He is still serving his sentence in jail.

GWCL said meter stealing is one of the challenges it faced in its operations in the Kasoa/Nyanyano area.

It stressed that not even a day passes without the district offices in those communities receiving reports of missing meters. It added this impedes GWCL’s objective of achieving a 100% metering ratio nationwide.