The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has closed down its district office in Somanya in the Yilo Krobo in Eastern Region over safety concerns.
The closure of the Somanya office took effect from December 1,2021 .
ECG has subsequently commissioned a new District office at Juapong which is politically under the Volta Region.
The new office will serve seven political districts namely, Yilo Krobo, Lower Manya Krobo, Asuogyaman, Ho West, North Tongu, Shai Osudoku and Okere.
Addressing the media Monday in Tema, the Managing Director of ECG Mr Kwame Agyemang explained that the decision to relocate to Juapong is due to the volatile environment created as a result of continuous agitations by some residents of Krobo against ECG including the recent threat by the United Krobo Foundation against the company to vacate from Kroboland .
He said officers of ECG will only operate on faults in Yilo and Lower Manya Krobo only under police protection.
“To protect the lives of our staff which we dare not compromise on, we henceforth will operate the district from Juapong office, and going forward, any faults intervention, or any call to correct any anomaly in the system within the Yilo Krobo and Lower Manya Krobo communities will be dependent on the availability of Police escort”.
The Managing Director of ECG the company has been very tolerant and patient with customers of the Krobo district, and especially the United Krobo Foundation and customers within the Yilo Krobo and Lower Manya Krobo communities over the years despite their attacks.
“The challenges we encountered between 2015 and 2016 were across all ECG operational areas when we were transferring customer data from the old CBIS to the new CMS software.
“We took our time for years up until 2017, to organise help desk clinics, and took each affected customer in the Krobo district through the ECG billing system, reconciled and validated 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” .He said
Mr. Agyemang explained further that “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.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, a Police station close to our office including burning of a Police pickup vehicle”.
Despite this latest decision, ECG reaffirmed its commitment to serve well the affected Krobo area and will consider returning when convinced .
“Indeed, it is with a heavy heart that we decided to support the position of the Tema region in protecting the precious lives of our employees. As a customer-oriented organization, we will never renege on our mandate to provide safe, quality, and reliable power supply to all customers within our operational areas, thereby assisting in the socio-economic development of our country.
Agitations
Some Krobos in Yilo and Lower Manya Krobo Municipalities in Eastern region are demanding direct power supply from Volta River Authority (VRA) instead of Electricity Company of Ghana.
According to them, the Construction of Akosombo and Akuse Dams displaced their ancestors and deprived them of their livelihood but were not compensated therefore it is insensitive for VRA not to serve them with power as being done in other Communities in Asuogyaman District.
As a result , the United Krobo Foundation ,a group championing this agenda over the years ,organized a massive demonstration on Monday November 22,2021 against plans by the Electricity Company of Ghana ,ECG, to introduce prepaid meters in Somanya,Odumase and its environs.
The group said, residents in Krobo area can no longer be under Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for power supply .
The Manya Krobo traditional council has however condemned the actions of the group.
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