Residents of Yilo and Lower Manya Krobo Municipalities in the Eastern Region have been plugged into the darkness since Wednesday, July 27, 2022, following a decision by the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG, to switch off feeders supplying power to communities in the two Municipalities over illegal connections.
According to ECG, some recalcitrant residents have tempered with their transformers and reconnected power to their homes after they were disconnected for refusal to accept prepaid meter installation.
Health facilities, banks, and businesses have therefore switched to the use of generators.
This is not the first time ECG has switched off feeders in the area. On December 6, 2021, the power distribution did the same and subsequently stated to explain that, “given the on-going interference in our network as a result of the scaling down of our operations in the Krobo area which was necessitated by the threat to our staff, ECG has decided to shut down the feeders at the Bulk Supply Point(BSP) directly feeding the Communities to protect our network, lives, and properties of innocent customers and the general public within the lower Manya and Yilo Krobo communities”
The switching off of the feeders was done a few hours after the power distributor closed down its district office in Somanya over safety concerns and relocated to a new office at Juapong.
Relocation and Matters arising
ECG officially announced on Monday, December 6, 2021, that, owing to Safety concerns, it has shut down its District office in Somanya and has relocated to Juapong which is political, under Volta Region.
The new Office at Juapong will serve Yilo Krobo, Lower Manya, Asuogyaman, Okere, Ho West, North Tongue, and Shai Osudoku.
Addressing the media on the new decision, the Managing Director of ECG, Kwame Agyeman-Budu explained that, ECG has been very tolerant and extremely patient with customers of the Krobo district, and especially the United Krobo Foundation and customers within the Yilo Krobo and Lower Manya Krobo communities despite attacks and threats.
He said the issue of overbilling which triggered all this agitation and attack on its officer by residents in the Krobo area was a challenge encountered between 2015 and 2016 across all ECG operational areas when the company was transferring customer data from the old CBIS to the new CMS software.
However, ECG took time years up until 2017, to organize help desk clinics, and took each affected customer in the Krobo district through the ECG billing system, reconciling and validating their bills.
“After the successful exercise, whilst some decided to pay their outstanding bills, this youth group (United Krobo Foundation and others) decided to prevent customers from paying, giving all manner of dubious reasons as already stated. This year, to bring a final resolution to the impasse, we decided to ring-fence all their debts up to 2017 so that they could pay from 2018 up to date on their negotiated terms”.
The Managing Director stated that “After numerous painstaking stakeholder engagements, when we thought the agreed roadmap has been accepted by all parties to end the misunderstanding, the youth groups demonstrated and threatened life and property of ECG, to the extent that ECG, and for that matter our staff, cannot undertake their legitimate business peacefully. It will be recalled that these same youth groups attacked our district office, our staff, and a Police station close to our office including burning a Police pickup vehicle”
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Obed Ansah
