Fifteen year-old boy arrested for stealing water meter

Agona Swedru, Aug. 2, GNA- A 15-year-old boy, Safiru Nuhu, was on Thursday arrested by the residents of Dwenho, a suburb of Agona Swedru, and handed over to the Swedru Police for stealing water meter belonging to the Ghana Water Company (GWC).

Superintendent Philip Aleawobu, Agona Swedru Municipal Police Commander disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), in an interview at Swedru on Friday.

He said the residents of the Municipality had been sensitized by the Manager and the staff of the Company, about the rampant stealing of meters and illegal connections which had drained the company of millions of cedis.

Superintendent Aleawobu said somebody attempted to remove a meter from the house of Mr Samuel Acquah at Dwenho and this put the people in the house on high alert .

He said on Thursday, July 31, at about 4 am, the people in the house got up and saw that the water was flowing without stopping, and this created room for suspicion that somebody might have tampered with the meter. The Municipal Police Commander said the suspect who was seen in the house, took to his heels, but he was arrested and handed over to the police after being given a hot chase. He stated that, when the suspect was arrested he told the people that it was the first time he came to steal the meter. Superintendent Aleawobu told the GNA that the police were of the view that these meter thieves might perhaps have a special market where they sold the stolen meters.

He warned that the Police would continue to be vigilant until these evil acts could be stopped in the Municipality. He said Nuhu would soon be put before the Swedru Circuit Court. Mr Bafour Ofosu- Addai, Municipal Manager of GWCL/AVRL told the stealing of meters in the area.

He stated that the sensitization was yielding positive results, adding that this had led to the arrest of Nuh from Swedru Old Zongo. Mr Ofosu-Addai said the company spent large sums of money to procure meters and other equipment to for customers, but miscreants were removing the meters, thus sabotaging the operations of the Company. He appealed to the public to avoid using middlemen, whom they contacted when they wanted to get new services instead of going to the company's offices for such services in order to minimize fraud, adding that this would help the company to render quality services to the people.

Mr Ofosu-Addai urged customers who owed the company huge sums of money to settle their indebtedness to avoid arrest and prosecution.