IGP visits Krobo area
Tension heightens in Krobo over ECG impasse
Krobo residents owe ECG in accumulated debts
The Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, has sent a clear message to the youth of Krobo land on violent conduct.
The IGP’s caution came during a visit to the Yilo Krobo area which has recently been involved in an impasse with the state power distribution company ECG.
Residents of the Krobo area and the Electricity Company of Ghana have been engaged in a disagreement over what the residents describe as exorbitant billing.
The situation has led to the residents embarking on various demonstrations amidst allegations of threats against ECG staff.
Visiting the Krobo area upon intelligence of an imminent demonstration that is likely to result in violence, the IGP cautioned the youth to desist from allowing themselves to be used for the perpetuation of violence.
The IGP gave assurance of a lasting solution to the standoff between the community and ECG.
He added that the police service will not renege on its duty in enforcing law and order, and will bring to book any individual cited for breaking the law.
“If you have any mindset for destruction, I want to urge you to stop it because you will be destroying your own future and if you see someone with a mindset of destruction and you don’t advise them to stop it, whatever he or she destroys will come and affect you.”
“If you choose not to stop it or tell the others to stop it, we (Police) will come for them, and we will do it in a manner and a way that nobody will appreciate it,” classfmonline.com quoted the IGP to have said.
An escalation of the disagreement between ECG and residents of the Krobo area recently led the power distribution company to move its office Krobo in the Eastern Region to Juapong in the Volta Region.
The decision was at the back of tensed situation between residents and staff of ECG, which according to the company had risen to a height of death threats against their staff.
The United Krobo Foundation, a youth group on Monday, November 22, 2021, led a demonstration over accumulated power debts electricity, threatening the Company to pack out of Kroboland if the debt cannot be retired completely.
A similar demonstration some years back led to the vandalising of the Somanya offices of the Company and the burning of a police vehicle.
“This clearly demonstrates that their recent threats which was captured on all media platforms, including the direct warning to ECG to vacate their Krobo land cannot be taken for granted,” the Managing Director of ECG, Kwame Agyemang-Badu, told journalists on Monday, December 6.
“The continuous emotional and psychological torture of our staff in the Krobo district cannot be allowed to go on in perpetuity.
“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.”
He emphasized that the ECG will reconsider returning its office operations to the area if it is “convinced that the environment that we have left is safe and harmonious for us to directly operate in these communities, we will not hesitate to give them our approval.”
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