The residents of Lower Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo municipalities of the Eastern Region want the negative tag as ‘defiant people’ effaced following developments in the enclave.
According to the townspeople, they are not averse to the payment of electricity bills as perceived but rather against the installation of the prepaid metres because they suspect the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is up to dupery.
An opinion leader in the community, Apostle Dr S.K. Atem who is Acting Secretary of the Christian Council, said over the period, the billing company (also the power distributor), had been inflating the bills of customers which they find worrying.
“The ECG reckoned the Krobos to be uninformed people so they infused the billing system with fraud,” he stated in his interview with Angel FM’s Anopa Bↄfoↄ morning show’s outside broadcast on Friday, August 12, 2022 held in Odumase Krobo.
“For example, if the light bill for my mission house is GH₵100 for July, they will add two zeros to it to become GH₵10000. Now, if I am to pay GH₵1000 out of the latter as part payment, it means GH₵900 would have been robbed,” said the leader.
Apostle Dr S.K. Atem thus averred that the customers realizing the alterations made to the billing system, refused to pay the bills to avoid being duped by the company.
He furthered that “the prepaid they (ECG) are bringing to Krobo is specially made for stealing. They have stolen a product which they still wield and they are introducing another product in a canny manner to syphone money from the people again. That is the problem with the Krobos.”
To solve the impasse between the power distributor and the ‘defiant’ consumers, the people are proposing that the company writes-off the debts on the post-paid meters and restart the billing process.
“The post-paid meters that are currently in place which they intend to replace with the prepaid meters should be reversed to zero so that we can start afresh. There they will know whether Krobos will pay the light bill or not.
“But if you want to replace the post-paid with the prepaid, then they haven’t acted in good faith,” said Mr Teye Quao Kassim popularly known in the enclave as Alhaji, a youth leader in the enclave.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy had indicated their resolve to install no other than the prepaid metre which is under contention in the community.
However, a committee has been set up to address the power issues confronting the affected communities.
This was after the traditional leaders of the area, together with Member of Parliament for the area held a meeting with the ECG and the Energy Ministry on August 2, 2022.
