Two Youth Groups within the Krobo Area, Kloma Gbi and Kloma Hengme of the Eastern Region have called for an immediate suspension of the prepaid meter installation exercise and a probe into the impasse between the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG and its customers in the Krobo Area.
The two groups in a statement issued on Tuesday, August 23, 2022 say they “have followed with hawkish attention the militant invasion of the Krobo, specifically the Nuaso community in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality by gun-wielding men and the subsequent molestation of the people including women and expectant mothers which resulted in bloodshed on Monday, 22nd August, 2022″.
It adds that ” the invasion of the Nuaso community by the maurading soldiers, the cruel attack on all in sight, and the indiscriminate shooting of the people is clearly an attack on the Krobo state which cannot pass without a downright condemnation”.
Consumers in the Krobo area have had a long standing dispute with the ECG. Some of these consumers make reference to what the ECG describes as a non existing agreement that exempt electricity users in Krobo from payment of electricity bills.
Attempts in the past by the ECG to disconnect consumers who owed arrears resulted in violent confrontations, compelling the ECG to relocate its offices out of the area.
To avoid further piling up of debts, the ECG has decided to replace all post paid meters in the Krobo area with prepaid ones. However, the exercise has been met with a stiff resistance from some sections of the people. Some of the fear that ECG will debit the prepaid meters with their old debts.
The residents have also been protesting the involvement of the military in the installation of the meters.
Communities in the Krobo area were plunged into weeks of darkness after ECG switched off its transformers due to what it said was tampering with its facilities by unknown persons. After about three weeks, ECG restored power to the two districts last week and resumed the prepaid meter installation exercise.
However, the installation team and some residents in the Nuaso community clashed one more time. There are conflicting reports as to the real cause of the class. Whiles the residents accused the ECG of using the military to brutalise them, the power company blamed the residents for attacking its staff.
The two Youth Groups in the Krobo area say the installation exercise is failing for obvious reasons and called on President Akufo-Addo to order immediate suspension of the exercise.
SOURCE: theGhanaianVoice
