Seven additional people, along with three Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) employees, have been charged with 20 counts of money laundering and stealing prepaid credits worth more than GH2.1 million. The workers are Anthony D. K. Quaye, a technician at the ECG district office in Kasoa, Grace Gardiner, the chief supervising cashier, and Ali Nansii Shaibu, a computer programmer at the ICT Department at the Head Office.
The other defendants include Augustina Laniyan, a private vendor who offered ECG pre-paid power credits to the general public, as well as Muntari Adamu, Gariba Awudu Misbaw, Kwasi Appiah Donkor, Eric Yaw Kyei, and Technician Ibrahim Baba Adamu at Ghana Electrometer Company.
In order to offer pre-paid electricity distribution to clients across the nation, ECG entered into a collaboration arrangement with a number of businesses, including Electrometer, in 2003. The selling of the credits was to also take place between private dealers. According to the prosecution, Ali Nansii Shaibu traveled to Hohoe in 2016 to address a pre-paid connectivity issue for the seventh defendant (Gariba Awudu Misbaw). The two decided to modify the software so that pre-paid credits could be transmitted to Gariba without the Hohoe District Office of the ECG being aware of it. The seventh defendant will then cancel the transaction and divide the money amongst themselves.
Credits worth ¢199,351.60 transferred and sold under this scheme.
Mr Shaibu equally entered into this deal with other accused persons resulting in the theft of ¢1,203,249.26 worth of credits. Another set of transactions with other accused persons resulted in various amounts being stolen. Prosecutors say investigations put the total value of stolen credits under this scheme at ¢2,143,270.15. The accused persons are said to have admitted to the offence and refunded an amount of ¢282,600. They all, however, pleaded not guilty when the charges were read against them in court. The hearing of the case will resume on April 27, 2023.
