The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Tema Region, has closed down its district office at Somanya, which serves residents of Manya and Yilo Krobo Municipalities in the Eastern Region.
The closure follows recent agitation by the Krobo youth group who had threatened the lives of the staff of the ECG in the area. The ECG says a new district office at Juapong has been opened to serve residents of Yilo and Manya Krobo Municipalities.
At a presser in Tema, the Tema General Manager for ECG Ing. Emmanuel Akinie accused the youth groups of bad faith since there has been extensive engagement to resolve issues regarding electricity bills.
He wondered why after the final resolution of the impasse, as evidenced by the preparation and signing of the report, the youth groups continued organising town meetings and inciting the public against payment of electricity bills.
He said management could not continue to risk the lives of their hardworking staff in such an unsafe environment.
“Owing to the very serious security threats against the ECG staff in parts of Yilo Krobo and Lower Manya Krobo municipalities, reliability of power supply in that enclave will be dependent on the availability of full police escort for ECG engineers, to attend to power supply challenges,” he noted.
Ing Akinie said the ECG would continue to provide quality, safe and reliable electricity services to the other parts of the ECG district where the security of its staff and installations are guaranteed.
To stay safe, he said the ECG had officially written to the Inspector General of Police and all National Security agencies to provide adequate security for all staff of ECG and all of ECG installations and facilities within the affected enclave.
BackgroundÂ
On Monday, November 22, 2021 over 7000 residents in Manya and Yilo Krobo Municipalities hit the streets to protest against the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The protesters, who were clad in red attire, marched through the principal streets to demand an immediate cessation of electricity supply from ECG to the area.
The protesters wanted the country’s largest state power generation company, Volta River Authority (VRA), to supply them with electricity, as according to them, ECG has been unfair in dealing with them.
The protesters claimed their ancestors were promised free electricity during the construction of the Akosombo Hydro-electric Dam in the 1960s. However, they could not corroborate their claim when challenged by both the Volta River Authority and the Electricity Company of Ghana.
