The Minister for Energy John Peter Amewu has vowed to crack down on those engaging in illegal electricity connection in the country.

According to him, he will not give a breathing space for such ‘criminals’ and has thus urged them to desist from it or get punished by the law if they are caught.

The energy sector, Mr. Peter Amewu, noted is bedeviled with problems and that he explained is of serious concern to the government.

“Currently, as I speak with you there has been a lot of problems in that sector. One of my concerns which I want to address immediately with the involvement of all Ghanaians has to do with the illegal connection. Illegal connection is a problem in the sector inn terms of waste,” Mr. Peter Amewu observed.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Accra based Oman FM, Mr. Peter Amewu, who described illegal connection as a drain on the country’s economy called on the media to support him to fight illegal connection as they did when he was the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources.

“We will need the media to support in this fight just as they did in the fight against galamsey,” he said.

Warning to District Managers

The sector Minister also warned District Managers of Electricity of Ghana (ECG) who have relaxed on their job and for that matter given electricity consumers the opportunity to engage in illegal connection to wake up.

In his view that era should be a thing of the past.

“District Officers who are sitting in their offices that illegal connections are being done in their district. This is a word of warning to them,” he warned.

According to him, “if we are able to flush out those illegalities of course we would be able to see that the debt in the energy sector would go down drastically.”

Power losses

Touching on transmission and distribution losses in the energy sector, Mr. Amewu, said he was going to take steps to ensure that the losses are reduced to the bearest minimum.