RECENTLY, we woke up to the unfortunate story of a policeman losing his life possibly in an electrocution incident in the Sophia area. I extend my condolences to the grieving family and friends of Constable Pittman. For sometime now this sprawling township has been in the news where illegal connections and theft of electricity are the worrying factors. It is  a headache for GPL and the government alike, because this scourge never seems to go away, only turning up someplace else in a newer and sneakier way. These electricity thieves always seem to be ahead of the game.
I know all too well this matter of illegal connections because I have visited this area on numerous occasions, coming close to being electrocuted myself thanks to the alert and watchful eyes of my close friend who was accompanying me at the time. Sophia is peppered with illegal connections; there is a network of these wires all across the landscape you name it and it is there; open livewires everywhere. In fact, at the time of my visit, a cow was electrocuted while crossing the canal that runs adjacent to the police station in Turkeyen. Such is the situation in Sophia.
Now, should we throw up our hands and run away from the thieves? Certainly not! What GPL ought to be doing is aggressively take up the challenge with the thieves; prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. I am not talking about that piecemeal approach of making raids just to remove wires and no further action. This is certainly a joke, because these are easily reconnected and the beat goes on. I speak of making raids with police protection and prosecuting the law-breakers. GPL has been negligent if not recklessly careless in this regard. Take for example the careless way they handled that raid when Mr Peters was sent into that hot-seat without police protection.GPL was negligent in not hiring the paid protection of the lawmen. We know what happened to Peters;the bandits there simply killed him. Sophia have been acted the bully they are ever since and GPL calmly complies. You cannot do such things. A real problem of electricity theft exists there so get your act together and fix it. Holding back on a few dollars in not getting the paid protection you need would not solve anything, it will only make matters worst.
Secondly, those persons should have been issued pre-paid meters forthwith. Instead of implementing the foregoing, GPL is asking for more money from the national coffers while demanding that honest, law- abiding and loyal customers take the pre-paid sets. This is the foolishness that obtains. Why should the honest, paying public be bullied into having a pre-paid meter when he is not the problem? Isn’t this ludicrous? But this is what they think would bring them success in the electricity sector.
So while GPL fixes, its attention should be on the innocent as the thieves are having a field day.