Accra, April 30, GNA - Two persons who allegedly posed as staff of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and extorted 15 million cedis from pastors of Living Testimony for Jesus Bible Ministry at Kokrobitey, near Weija in Accra, for tampering with their meter, were on Monday remanded into police custody by an Accra Circuit Court.

Eric Kojo Sackey, a 42-year-old electrician and Alhassan Agumbill, 36-year-old errand boy, are being held for conspiracy, extortion, impersonation and possessing forged documents.

The accused, who pleaded not guilty are expected to reappear on May 7. Chief Inspector J.K. Anim, the prosecutor, said on April 24, this year, Pastor Bimpong Yeboah and his colleagues were at the church premises when the two accused persons came and introduced themselves as workers from Revenue Loss Control Unit of ECG on routine inspection. The prosecution said the accused inspected three meters at the church premises and informed the pastors that two of their meters had been tampered with and as such they were not "reading correctly". The accused told Pastor Yeboah that they would escort him to their office at Avenor so that they would be sent to court. Chief Inspector Anim said accused after issuing a series of threats, finally demanded 17 million cedis on each meter to abandon the matter.

The pastors who suspected mischief told the accused persons to come the next day for the amount. The prosecution said the complainants went to the ECG offices at Avenor to verify the identity of the accused persons where they were told that the accused were not staff of the company. They also reported the matter to the police who also mounted surveillance at the church premises. The prosecution said at about 1700 hours on April 24 the accused persons returned to take the money as agreed and while they were leaving, the police arrested them. Chief Inspector Anim said two ECG pliers, screwdrivers, fake identity cards of the company, among other things were found on them. An official of ECG identified Sackey as an errand boy at the premises and Agumbilla as former worker who was dismissed after committing a similar offence at Pokuase.