The Electricity Company of Ghana has reiterated that its stance on the condition it set to be met before it restores power to the Krobo enclave remains unchanged as it reaffirms that if the safety of its workers is not guaranteed they will not enter the community to work.
A longstanding feud between the ECG and Krobo residents which dates back to 2014 was rekindled in 2022 over the installation of prepaid meters.
The ECG disconnected the entire community from the national grid and the Public Relations Officer of the company explained the rationale behind the company’s decision to put the entire community in darkness.
Madam Sakyiwa Mensah explained that “It was mainly for safety reasons. By safety, we mean our workers felt threatened. Also, the life and property of consumers within the enclave were at risk. We were working on restoring the power. While at it, we realised that some consumers had on their own started connecting to transformers in other communities which had light. This was done with careless abandon. They did not know the extent of possible damage their actions could cause”.
She added that some of the residents went as far as illegally connecting to the high tension poles which amount to an unauthorized entry into the network and due to this they wanted to assess the extent of damage to see how it can be resolved.
Another safety situation was encountered in Kwahu North where some of its staff and military men who went there were pelted with stones.
With these instances, she said the company is gravely concerned about the safety of the power that would get to the end user due to interference in their connection.
“We should note that we are not forcing anyone to accept the meters,“ she said
As it stands now Krobo residents decry that though prepaid meters would be installed they are not convinced it would address the overbilling situation hence their demand for power directly from the Volta River Authority.
