The entire Kroboland in the Eastern Region has plunged into darkness.

A statement issued by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) stated that “in view of the ongoing interference in our network, as a result of the scaling down of our operations in the Krobo area, which was necessitated by the threat to our staff, ECG has decided to shut down the feeders at the Bulk Supply Point (BSP) directly feeding the communities in order to protect our network, lives, and properties of innocent customers and the general public within the lower Manya and Yilo Krobo communities”.

The state power distributor recently shut down its office in Somanya in the Yilo Krobo District 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.

The new ECG office is expected to serve seven districts including Lower Manya Krobo, Asuogyaman, Ho West, North Tongu, Shai Osudoku, Okere and Yilo Krobo.

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

He noted that although the office had been relocated, it will operate on any faults reported in Lower Manya and Yilo Krobo with police protection.

“To protect the lives of our staff, which we dare not compromise on, we, henceforth, will operate the district from Juapong office; and going forward, any faults intervention, or any call to correct any anomaly in the system within the Yilo Krobo and Lower Manya Krobo communities will be dependent on the availability of police escort”.

Mr Agyemang further noted that the company took years to educate the residents of the area on its billing system but the youth groups decided to stop paying bills.  

He said: “The challenges we encountered between 2015 and 2016 were across all ECG operational areas when we were transferring customer data from the old CBIS to the new CMS software”.

“We took our time for years, up until 2017, to organise help desk clinics and took each affected customer in the Krobo district through the ECG billing system, reconciled and validated their bills”.

“After the successful exercise, while some decided to pay their outstanding bills, this youth group (United Krobo Foundation and others) decided to prevent customers from paying, giving all manner of dubious reasons as already stated.”

He, however, assured the residents of their commitment toward serving residents of the area despite the relocation to Juapong.

“Indeed, it is with a heavy heart that we decided to support the position of the Tema Region in protecting the precious lives of our employees. As a customer-oriented organisation, we will never renege on our mandate to provide safe, quality, and reliable power supply to all customers within our operational areas, thereby assisting in the socio-economic development of our country,” he stated.

Some residents of Krobo have, in recent times, demanded direct power supply from the Volta River Authority (VRA) instead of ECG.

The residents claim their ancestors were displaced by the construction of the Akosombo Dam without compensation and, therefore, the VRA, in their view, is being inconsiderate by not serving electricity to residents of Kroboland. 

A group promoting this agenda, on Monday, 22 November 2021, organised a demonstration in the area, over plans by the ECG to introduce prepaid metres in Odumase, Somanya and their surroundings. 

The actions of the group have, however, been condemned by the Manya Krobo traditional council.