May 20, 2021
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay, together with his Deputy Minister and senior officials in the Ministry of Energy has held fruitful discussions with the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Anthony Brewah, and the Chief Justice Babatunde Edwards on the need to establish an Electricity Offenders’ Court.
The visit of the Minister came hard on the heels of the wicked vandalization and utter destruction of an electricity installation at Kossoh Town by some mischief makers and criminals to add to the worrisome trend of the constant destruction and theft of electricity installations and materials, unmetered supply, unregistered meters and non-charging customers by members of the public and business organizations.
Alhaji Kanja Sesay told the Attorney General and the Chief Justice that these incidences had occasioned some serious technical and commercial losses on agencies directly involved in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, adding that places where these installations were vandalized would also go for long periods without electricity.
He spoke about government’s overall policy objective in the energy sector which, among other things, include increasing access to energy, but was quick to state that the realization of such a good objective was constantly being threatened by these criminal acts. He therefore appealed to the two men to legally use their good offices to help in the establishment of an Electricity Offenders’ Court.
The Minister of Energy went on to say that matters involving electricity theft charged by the police to court do not get quick attention and that the fines that are normally imposed on convicted persons fall appreciably short of compensating for the huge damage caused or in creating a deterrence.
The Attorney General and the Chief Justice both promised to treat the concern and request with the utmost seriousness that it deserves, noting that their offices would look at the Electricity Act of 2011 to see how it would procedurally or statutorily be of help in the creation of the court.
The visit of the Minister to the county’s topmost officials in the judiciary is indicative of how determined he and the Ministry of Energy are in their quest to permanently address the repetitive and worrisome issue of vandalization and theft of electricity installations and materials.