There is mounting tension in some communities in the Lower Manya Krobo municipality as some residents of Nuaso, a community in the municipality are accusing the military detachment assisting the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to install prepaid metres of brutalities.
The residents allege that the team unleashed attacks and severely subjected some of the residents to beatings, though they did not resist the installation of the meters.
The unprovoked attacks have left many severely injured while others live in fear.
One of the female victims of the attack explained that “when they came, I was preparing food in the kitchen. They said I should enter my room and I said I was cooking so I cannot go with them. The moment I said I cannot go, they took their cane and started beating me. They said we are going to come again, and we will come and beat you more than this.”
Ebenezer Teye Padi, who also sustained injuries on his face and back, alleged that one of the soldiers hit his head with the butt of his riffle when he was seated with friends under a shed.
“We have a resting place, we sat there, what we saw was that the military men came to us, they didn’t ask us any question and they started beating us up. Anybody they saw roaming about, it means that you are their enemy. Nobody told us that ECG and military men are coming to us and if you are a resident you will ask them what they are doing here. That is our mistake. Look at my back, even they hit my head with their gun,” he said.
It is still unclear what may have triggered the disturbances in the area but Joy News sources from the ECG state that some residents attempted to pour hot oil on personnel of the ECG and the military while others also threatened to inflict cutlass wounds on them if they dared to install the new meters.
The military team, our sources say, in the process, retrieved a cutlass from one of the people who were amassing around the ECG team and the military.
There is general light out in the Yilo and Manya Krobo municipalities where lights were restored after the ECG took them off the national grid for more than three weeks following a disagreement between the residents and the power distributor over the installation of prepaid meters
Meanwhile, ECG condemned these attacks as unfortunate situations.