Parliament has directed the Defence Minister to immediately withdraw the military personnel assisting the installation of prepaid meters at Lower Manya Krobo in the Eastern Region.
The directive was given by the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, on Friday, June 24 after the Member of Parliament for the area, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi raised the matter on the floor of the house , indicating that the presence of the military men is heightening tensions in the community.
“We are also directing that the Minister for Defence withdraws the military attaché in the area for the time being for us to address certain matters, I so direct.” the second deputy speaker directed .
A week ago ,residents of Kpongunor in the Odumase Krobo in Eastern Region hit the streets to demonstrate against installation of prepaid meters and deployment of armed military personnel to the area as part of the exercise.
The demonstrators clad in red arm band and clad in traditional war apparels chanted war songs to express their displeasure .
A contingent of 50 military personnel have been deployed to Krobo area to provide security to staff of Electricity company of Ghana ,ECG, as it replaces all postpaid meters with prepaid meters since June 14,2022
The military are being assisted by National Security and the Police.
However , according to Sakyiwaa Mensah, Public Relations Officer for , ECG, Tema Region the military are providing technical support sice they are undergoing refresher training course at ECG training school.
Customers who still insist on rejecting prepaid meters are taken off the national grid .
Residents in the Krobo area are unhappy with the development hence the demonstration .
Meanwhile , speaking to the media in Koforidua on Monday June 13,2022 at the sidelines of a familiarization visit by management of ECG led by the new Managing Director (ECG), Mr. Samuel Dubik Masubir Mahama ,the Director of Customer Service , Anokye Abebreseh said, intensive engagements have been done with all stakeholders in the Krobo area hence expecting maximum cooperation.
“Just last week we met ,a tripartite kind of a committee comprising of Electricity company , National Security and United Krobo Foundation .We met and the agreement is that ECG going to install prepaid meter starting from tomorrow for which all of us have agreed .so come tomorrow (Tuesday) we are going to deploy our men to the field to start the installation of prepayment meters .We have done a lot of stakeholders engagements so at least for now calm is prevailing so come tomorrow 14th of June we are going to start deployment of prepayment meters ” said Anokye Abebreseh
The installation of prepaid meters comes after years of impasse between Krobo residents and ECG which escalated into devasting attacks on ECG office in Somanya and led to deadly clash with police . The ECG office has since been shut down.
Residents vowed to resist installation of Prepaid meters while calling on ECG to write off debts owned by customers in Krobo land from 2018 to 2021.
Answering questions on the controversy of none payment of electricity bills by residents ,Mr.Anokye Abebreseh stressed that ECG has ring-fenced all arrears of customers in the Krobo area from the period between 2014 and 2017 but arrears between 2018 to date must be paid by customers within 5 years however ,the debt will not be transferred into the prepaid meters to be installed .
“We made it clear that the period between 2014 and 2017 has been ring-fenced so that the customers for now will not border themselves about their amount but then the period between 2018 to date the customers are supposed to pay but for goodwill purposes we’ve asked that we are not going to put the debt on the new prepayment meters . Normally the practice is that when you out prepayment meter there you put the debt on the post paid meter on the prepaid meter so that we will recover whatever debt but in this case we said from 2018 to date we are not going to put it there ,and that we will meet customers individually and determine how they should pay the debt”
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Obed Ansah
