Taiwanese On Bail Over Stolen Copper Cables

A Taiwanese, Dr Teddy Yeh, who was arrested on Monday for allegedly buying large quantities of stolen copper cables belonging to the Ghana Telecommunications Company (GhanaTelecom) Limited and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), has been granted police enquiry bail.

The officer in charge of La District Police Headquarters, Assistant Suoerintendent S. Nyamekye Adane-Ameyaw, who made this known said further investigations into the alleged case had begun in earnest.

On Monday, large quantities of copper cables allegedly stolen from Ghana Telecom and the ECG were uncovered at the premises of the Taiwanese who resides at Teshie.

Dr Yeh, who is said to be a herbal medical practitioner, was arrested under dramatic circumstances after it was realised that he had stored the copper cables, estimated to cost hundreds of millions of cedis, in two different warehouses within his compound.

When personnel from the Special Task Force Unit of the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB), officials from Ghana Telecom and the media went to Dr Yeh's residence, only his workers were found, but upon a thorough search, he was found hiding under a table in one of his many rooms and sweating.

He was wearing a faded white T-shirt over a loose green khaki shorts and no sleepers and he was quickly apprehended and whisked away in a Toyota Landcruiser vehicle to the La District Police Station for interrogation.

Incidentally, two ladies and a gentleman who had earlier denied knowledge of the whereabouts of their master vanished into thin air upon seeing him hooked by the shorts by the unarmed men from the RAGB task force.

Copper is said to be one of the hard metals whose prices are appreciating very fast on the international market, a situation which has compelled some unscrupulous persons to steal copper cables anywhere they found them.

On his compound were one storey building and three different warehouses, two of which contained the copper cables which were identified by officials of Ghana Telecom as belonging to their company.

Also found in the warehouse were some machinery, including that used for refining gold. The Head of Corporate Communications of Ghana Telecom, Major Albert Don Chebe (retd), told the media men present that the cables in the warehouses belonged to his company.

He said the company lost about ¢4.8 billion worth of copper cables last year alone. “This amount, coupled with the cost of replacement and the revenue which is lost during interruptions when the lines those cables serve are not working, has made us lose heavily,” Major Chebe said.

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