The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, Mr. Kenneth Ashigbey has said the telecommunication industry is intensifying its fight against thieves who have been stealing some active devices used in providing services to the publics.
He indicated that his outfit has formed a strong partnership with the telecommunication networks (telcos) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to embark on the fight.
According to him, over 440,565 devices have been stolen by unknown persons from the telcos cell sites; key amongst them is the active devices that are used for the transmission waves to enable effective communication take place between devices or gadgets.
“For just the active equipment since August 2020 data from the three networks, we have had 115 stolen,” Mr. Ashigbey revealed, adding the thieves also made away with 804 batteries commonly used for inverters as well as 700 generator batteries, air conditioners, copper cables and more.
He made this disclosure during a press conference held in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi.
Giving a breakdown of the theft cases, he mentioned that Ashanti region has the highest of cases, recording 43.5% followed by the Central and Greater Accra regions.
He appealed to the public to help them fish out those who invade and steal the active devices from the telco cell sites, noting that the devises have strong impact on services provided by the networks, financial institutions and entities that rely on their systems to provide services to the publics.
“When they go and steal these things, it makes the cell sites diminish in strength. When that happens, we cannot communicate, we can’t browse the internet and the mobile money platform would also be affected.”
Meanwhile, the CEO has also disclosed that two persons have been arrested and arraigned before court following investigations into some of the theft cases.
“The Circuit Court 2 has granted them bail and they would be returning on June 9, 2022” he told journalists at the conference.
