The Somanya office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), has been shut down indefinitely.
Deputy General Secretary of the Public Utility Workers’ Union (PUWU), Richard Nyarbah who disclosed this on Asempa FM’s Ekosi Sen Tuesday said they have been forced to shut down the offices because residents threatened to deal with workers hence they cannot risk the lives of staff of the company.
“Yes we have shut down all the ECG offices at Somanya because we can’t continue to risk the lives of workers” he said.
He continue that “If we should disconnect power in the area, innocent people will be affected and so the best thing was to shut the offices down”.
The ECG Eastern Regional office came under attack from some residents who were dissatisfied with what they described as ‘outrageous’ utility bills.
The residents wielding sticks and stones damaged the office of the company in protest after they waited for hours to get a response from ECG officials without success.
They left behind broken glasses and dirty ECG walls.
It has emerged the protest was led by the Assembly Member of the area, Jones Tetteh popularly known as Dindindin who owns a block factory in the area.
He is reported to have incited the residents after his factory was denied power following his inability to pay his bills.
But reacting to the issue, Mr Nyarbah noted that the decision taken by the ECG is to withdraw the staff from the area because they will be attacked by the residents.
Mr Nyarbah maintained that the offices will be opened only if the residents apologise to them and assure the workers of safety before they can resume work.
“We won’t open the offices till they apologise to us through the chiefs and opinion leaders in the area and then assure us of their safety else they should just forget about it” he stressed.
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