The Coalition of Krobo Youth has said it is prepared to provide security for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to operate its District Offices at Somanya in the Yilo Krobo District of the Eastern Region and has appealed to the power distributor to rescind its decision to relocate to Juapong.

This follows the relocation of the offices of the ECG from Somanya due to safety concerns and the total power outage being experienced within the Manya and Yilo Krobo communities.

A statement issued by the coalition co-singed by its Convenor Frederick Narh Okley, Secretary Samuel Nartey and Organiser Peter Boateng said: “We don’t support the ultimatum given the ECG to leave Kroboland in three weeks. We are prepared to give security for ECG to function.

“All over the country, prepaid metres have become the order of the day. We in Krobland cannot say we don’t like prepaid metres. We are aware that people who had issues with their bills were allowed to submit them for corrections. Anyone who has not taken advantage of this should do so immediately.”

According to the Coalition, “the effect of this blackout in Kroboland has brought enormous hardship to the people including state institutions.”

It indicated that there were rumours that the current blackout was a plan by the power distributing company to punish the people of Kroboland.

“The deployment of generator plants to the Somanya Polyclinic, Atua Government hospital and St Martins hospital at Agormanya confirm the suspicions that the Blackout is intentional.”

The Coalition further noted that the blackout by the ECG and its negative impact on Kroboland portrays the government as “uncaring and this will negatively affect the government. ECG cannot use the sin of a handful to punish the entire Krobo population of over 200, 000 people. That is unacceptable!”

It described the ECG’s explanation for the blackout as “preposterous.”

It also cautioned the United Krobo Foundation against dragging the image of Krobos in the mud.

“We will meet them boot-for-boot at the peril of our lives. If state securities that are paid to protect us fail to arrest these miscreants, we will take the law into our own hands and deal with them mercilessly. The name of KROBOLAND which our forefathers fought for shall be protected.”

The Coalition added that: “We are prepared to work with any government agency, private sector, and investor who wish us well” and appealed to the management and Board of ECG to “reconsider their exit from Somanya and come back.”

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) recently said the total power outage being experienced within the Krobo area is due to the activities of “unscrupulous persons” which caused overloading on some transformers and destroyed several others within the various communities.

The ECG made this known in a statement issued on Tuesday, 7 December 2021.

According to the ECG, its investigations have established that the current outage is “due to the activities of unscrupulous persons who transferred customers from a transformer with a phase-off problem to adjacent transformers, thereby overloading them and destroying several transformers within the communities.”

The “total illegal hijack of our network is unacceptable,” the company noted.

The statement continued that the company has decided to “shut down the feeders at the Bulk Supply Point (BSP) directly feeding the communities in order to protect” its network, “lives and properties of innocent customers and the general public” within the Lower Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo communities.

This, the company noted, is a result of the reduction in its operations within the Krobo area, which was necessitated by the threat to its staff.

“Affected customers should please note that ECG is engaging traditional authorities to find a lasting solution to address the various issues particularly the insecurity which does not permit us to operate in the district office at Somanya,” the statement added.

ECG recently shut down its office in Somanya in the Yilo Krobo District of the Eastern Region due to safety concerns.

This was announced by the Managing Director of ECG, Mr Kwame Agyemang, on Monday, 6 December 2021, at a press conference in Tema.

The office, which was shut down on Wednesday, 1 December 2021, has been relocated to Juapong in the Volta Region.

According to the Managing Director, the district office was shut down to protect the lives of the workers of the state power distributor.