The National Leadership of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) last Friday, stormed the Lower Manya and Yilo Krobo Municipalities respectively as part of their ongoing membership drive and reorganization activities in the Eastern Region .
The visit comes in the wake of a recent standoff between indigenes of these communities and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), which resulted in the latter disconnecting electricity supply to these areas for several weeks.
Having followed developments in the Krobo enclave and interacted with the Chiefs and people of the area, the party has become aware of the longstanding impasse between residents and the ECG over the installation of prepaid meters, which not long ago degenerated into violent protests, leading to loss of lives in the process.
The party’s leadership is appalled at how the simple process of installing prepaid meters for residents in these communities has been badly managed by the Akufo-Addo government, the Ministry of Energy and Management of the Electricity Company of Ghana.
A statement from, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the National Chairman, NDC said “We hold the view that the military-backed forced installation of prepaid meters in the area without proper community engagement and sensitization was completely unnecessary”.
The NDC lamented that the recent crisis has brought economic activities in the Krobo area to a halt and exacerbated the hardships the people in the area are already reeling under.
“Hospitals were forced to shutdown leading to loss of lives, while schools, businesses, and households all bore the brunt of the nearly one month freeze on electricity supply to these areas,” Ofoso Ampofo said in the statement.
He said the NDC condemns in no uncertain terms the government’s high-handed approach to resolving these issues and the brutalities meted out to innocent citizens in the area by the military.
“And we sympathize with the residents of these communities who have been at the receiving end of such mistreatment by the government through its agents”.
“We call on the government to as a matter of urgency withdraw all military personnel who have been deployed to the Krobo area to ease the unnecessary tension and give way for citizens to go about their normal lives freely”.
“The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government must change its modus operandi and adopt a humane approach in addressing the “Kroboland- ECG crisis,” the party said.
BY Daniel Bampoe