Aggrieved residents of Yilo and Manya Krobo municipalities of the Eastern Region have hit the streets against plans by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to introduce prepaid meters at Somanya, Odumase, and its environs.
The protesters, led by the United Krobo Foundation, a youth group in the area, want the power distributor to halt its intended plans.
Over the years, residents of the two municipalities have kicked against what they claim to be huge electricity tariffs, accusing the ECG of deliberately attempting to short-change them.
At a press conference recently held at Odumase Krobo, the group said residents would no longer want to be ECG customers.
A leading member of the United Krobo Foundation, Teye Kwao Kassim, said the overbilling situation is negatively affecting their livelihoods.
“We have a problem with ECG, and that we are meeting to solve the problem but quite recently, ECG said they are coming to fix prepaid meters. We, too we won’t allow that because the Kofi Afawu’s committee confirmed that 99 per cent of what we, the Krobo’s, are saying was right.
“We are saying that ECG should withdraw the huge bills they want us to pay because it is not right to be made to pay bills you are not supposed to pay. We are saying that before we pay, the ECG should cancel the overbilling because we are not ready to pay.
“Now they want to enter the towns with their prepaid meters, but we won’t agree. They held durbars at Somanya, Agormanya and Kpong that they are wrong with the overbilling,” he explained.
As a result of the impasse, the residents are demanding a direct power supply from the Volta River Authority (VRA) instead of the ECG.
According to them, the Construction of Akosombo and Akuse Dams displaced their ancestors and deprived them of their livelihood but they were not compensated; therefore, it is insensitive for the VRA not to serve them with power as is being done in other communities in the Asuogyaman District.
“The last resolution we passed is at the Flagstaff House now. The last bill on ECG paper was ¢23,000 but when we went to ECG it changed to ¢200. There’s a worker at VRA who was billed ¢45,000, but when they took the bill to ECG, it was ¢2,000. What about the person who doesn’t know anything? ECG is killing our people. ECG must go; VRA should take over,” he stated
The group had earlier demanded that the entire Krobo area accesss free power supply from the VRA as part of their corporate social responsibility for taking their land for constructing the Kpong and Akuse Dams.
A protest against unfair billing turned violent as aggrieved customers destroyed a refurbished Somanya ECG office, vandalised the Somanya Police station, and freed some inmates barely four years ago.