In Tamale, a man named Wahab Shiraz got in big trouble for connecting his electricity illegally. The Tamale District Court 1 decided to send him to prison for six months. The judge, Justice Derrick Annan, said Shiraz has to do hard work in jail and can’t pay money to avoid it.
On top of that, the court said Shiraz must pay a fine of 500 penalty units, which is the same as GHS 6,000. This money will go to the government. The court also told Shiraz to give GHS 10,096.55 to the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo). This is because NEDCo figured out that Shiraz stole about that much electricity.
If Shiraz doesn’t pay the GHS 6,000 fine, he will have to stay in prison for an extra seven months. That means he could be in jail for a total of 13 months.
Shiraz, who lives in Bulpella, Tamale, admitted that he did something wrong. He broke a rule called “interference with electricity distribution system” under Rule 41(2A) and 1(6) of the Electricity Supply and Distribution Rules 2005 (L.I. 1816). NEDCo found out about Shiraz’s illegal connection when they were doing a special exercise to collect money in December 2023.
NEDCo told Shiraz that he made an illegal connection and asked him to come for an investigation, but he didn’t show up. So, NEDCo told the Tamale police about the case, and that’s how Shiraz ended up in court.
After the court made its decision, NEDCo’s lawyer, Ms. Esther Yirbom, told everyone not to make illegal electricity connections. She said that if people cooperate with NEDCo, pay for the power they stole, and promise to behave better, the court might not punish them as much.
Ms. Yirbom said that even though these things don’t make what they did okay, it might help them get a lighter punishment. She warned people not to connect their electricity illegally, or they might face big problems like Shiraz did.
