Residents of Kpongunor in the Odumase Krobo in the Eastern Region on Thursday hit the streets to demonstrate against the installation of prepaid meters and the deployment of armed military personnel to the area as part of the exercise.
The demonstrators clad in a red armband and clad in traditional war apparel chanted war songs to express their displeasure.
A contingent of 50 military personnel has been deployed to the Krobo area to provide security to the staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG, as it replaces all postpaid meters with prepaid meters on June 14, 2022.
The military is being assisted by National Security and the Police.
However, according to Sakyiwaa Mensah, Public Relations Officer for, ECG, Tema Region the military is providing technical support since they are undergoing a 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, on the sidelines of a familiarization visit by the 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 meters 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 stakeholder’s 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 the impasse between Krobo residents and ECG which escalated into divesting attacks on the ECG office in Somanya and led to a deadly clash with police. The ECG office has since been shut down.
Residents vowed to resist the 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
