Ningo-Prampram MP Sam Nartey George has taken down his Facebook post about an alleged cyber attack on the systems of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

According to him, he deleted the post out of respect for the ongoing audit and maintenance work the ECG is doing to resolve the challenges customers have been facing in buying prepaid credits.

Mr George added that he did not intend to compromise the remedial steps ECG was taking to resolve the situation.

“I have taken down my ECG post out of respect for the work I have just been informed is being done on the matter. I do not intend in any way to compromise the remedial steps underway,” he wrote.

On Sunday, October 2, the legislator claimed that the challenges ECG prepaid customers are experiencing are “extremely serious” because “the attack on their system was not external but carried out by a cabal of ‘criminals' within the very same organisation.”

The MP added that he had an information that a group had been siphoning over ¢200 million every month from the power distribution company.

He urged government to commence a forensic investigation of the IT department of ECG.

“What we are witnessing is internal power play to cripple the new MD who has dared to open an investigation into these matters. The state security apparatus must with alacrity take this matter up and ensure the safety and protection of the MD and his team seeking to uncover the mess.

“The rot at ECG would make you sick if you truly love this country and it is not about politicians here. It is Ghanaian citizens taking advantage of the citizens. We demand swift and immediate action,” he said.

The ECG has, however, indicated that it is undertaking an audit into its systems to help ascertain what caused the interruptions in the purchase of electricity credits by customers using both old and new prepaid metres.

Speaking on The Probe on Sunday, ECG’s General Manager of External Communications said “for every system when there are issues you do a system audit and that is what we are doing now, trying to make sure we audit the system to understand what happened.”

Mr Charles Nii Ayiku Ayiku added that “I am sure at the end of the day we will come to a conclusion but for now, effort and concentration are to make sure that we get our systems up and running.”

Despite the challenges, the General Manager insisted the ECG systems are not vulnerable and believes the audit will clearly spell out what went wrong.

Meanwhile, Mr Goerge says he “would continue to follow the matter and update the public on the actions taken to ensure such treachery against our country never happens again.”

Credit purchase

On October 1, ECG said they had fixed the vending challenges and urged customers to visit any nearest office to purchase credits.

However, some customers have been reporting challenges as of Monday morning.

Mr Ayiku was confident the situation would not be experienced again, adding that “we as a company are not happy about the situation; we are very sorry and we are working very hard to make sure that we will not experience this again.”