Cable thief dies in the act at Tarkwa


A member of an unidentified group of young men who took advantage of a temporary power outage at Tarkwa in the Western Region to cut overhead high tension cables has been electrocuted.

The cable thieves were said to have cut the line near a conductor but were not able to cut the other end before power was restored, electrocuting the member coiling the cable.

 
According to officials of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), two of the lines on the 240volts overhead poles were successfully cut.

 
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, an officer of the ECG in Tarkwa, Mr Kofi Agyan said this year alone the company had recorded many cases of theft of high voltage, which in some cases resulted in the death of the saboteurs.

 
He said in the instant case, two of the lines on the 240 volts overhead poles had been cut and the deceased was found dead with the cable.

 
The second cable over 100 meters was not at the scene and that they suspected that the deceased’s colleagues might have taken it away.

 
“That means that the one who was electrocuted was not working alone, therefore, his colleagues bolted with the cables upon realising that their colleague had died,” he said.

 
mode of operation
Mr Gyan said in order to have access to the overhead cables; the cable thieves first throw wires or metallic objects on the cables to bridge it for the system to trip so they could cut the lines.

 
He said mostly, the lines were cut from the intake point to enable them coil and run with the cables. In the case of the 11,000 kilovolts, the one cutting the cable bridged the lines but did not know that the system did not go off.

 
“Therefore, in the process of cutting the line, he did not know that the power did not go off and was electrocuted,” he said.

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