Power disruption on GRIDCO pylon: Arrest and prosecute criminals!
Sometimes there are things that become targets of criminals that many would consider ridiculous.
Also, there are certain things that one would not expect thieves to go after. But criminals are targeting them for a reason and they do not even care killing and endangering the lives of people in the process.
This is exactly what the criminals did when they vandalised a pylon transmitting 161 kilovolt power from the Volta station near the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCO) headquarters to the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) smelter in Tema.
The criminal act was said to have disrupted power supply to Accra west and the whole of Kumasi from 1.30am to 1.58am when power was restored again.
The disruption also affected the Karpoweship Ghana Limited which contributes 450 megawatts power to the national grid.
But what is the motive of the criminals?
They had attempted to steal bolts and nuts that were holding the pylons to its concrete foundations.
So, they used hacksaw blade to cut the bolts to remove the nuts and pushed the pylons down and in the process disabled adjoining pylons.
This criminal act which may have caused havoc to few people plunged many parts of the country into darkness.
The concern of the Ghanaian Times is that the vandals do not care a hoot about what happens to anybody through their vandalism.
Although the blackout caused by that act lasted few minutes, the damage caused could run into millions of cedis.
Many people may have also suffered irreparable damage during the blackout but the criminals do not care.
To repair the damaged pylons, it would require funding which the tax payer would have to cough up.
It is against this backdrop that we call for swift action against perpetrators of this heinous crime.
We urge the police and other law enforcement agencies to pursue the criminals, arrest and prosecute them.
Most of the time, these crimes are committed and the public is outraged and yet nothing is heard about it again.
This time around, we expect the law enforcement agencies to dig deep, arrest the culprits and punish them.
