Dunkwa/Offin. — THE ELECTRICITY Company of Ghana (ECG) has presented a total amount of ¢11 million to two farmers of Ayanfuri-Gyaman in the Central Region for sustaining various degrees of injuries, while preventing armed robbers from stealing ECG cables.

The two farmers, Messrs Akwasi Ahenkan, 37 and Kwabena Osei, 32, received ¢5 million and ¢3 million respectively at a ceremony at Dunkwa recently.

Ahenkan received a further ¢3 million in payment of medical bills.

Mr. Godfred Kyeremanteng, ECG's Director of Administration, who made the presentation, congratulated the farmers for their vigilance, patriotism and gallantry.

He said the company would, as a policy, reward all who, in one way or the other, helped the company improve upon its service delivery.

The Ashanti West Regional Director, Ing. Kofi Afewu, disclosed that on March 20, this year, while returning from a hunting expedition, the two farmers encountered armed robbers stealing ECG cables at Ayanfuri-Gyaman.

The farmers gathered courage and confronted the thieves who shot at them. Akwasi Ahenkan sustained injuries in the abdomen in the process.

Ing. Andrew Tonto Barfour, Director of Operations of ECG, condemned meter tampering, meter by-passing and illegal connection among others, which acts, he said, amounted to 15% commercial losses and ran into billions of cedis annually.

He said besides the cost of manpower, huge cost of outage period and the inconveniences outages caused cherished customers, the ECG spent ¢250 million annually to replace stolen cables and conductors in ECG operational areas.

The Upper Denkyira District Police Commander, Supt. I.K. Akun, confirmed the arrest and detention in prison custody of three armed robbers, which case is pending while investigations continue.

The presentation was witnessed by Nana Otaa Panin III, Dabehene of the Denkyira Traditional Area; the newly elected MP for the area, Mr. Ben K. Ayeh; Nana Effah Mensah, chief of Ayanfuri-Gyaman and Manu-Marfo, Ashanti East Regional Director of the ECG.