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General News of Sunday, May 26, 2019
Source: starrfm.com.gh
2019-05-26
About 35 people were arrested during the riot
Anger is picking up in Manya Kpongunor, near Odumase Krobo, in Manya Municipality, as a result of an excessive delay by the Energy Distribution Service (PDS) to reinstate the city. power supply to the community, five days after turning off the transformers in the area and removed the fuses.
The reason why PDS failed to restore food to the community after apparently restoring all the other communities in darkness on Wednesday, May 22, after deadly clashes between police and residents after attacks on PDS staff.
Member of the Assembly of the region, Joseph Adeti told Starr News that the efforts made to obtain the management of the PDS in order to restore power in the community did not succeed. He added that district PDS officials said they waited for orders from above before they could restore power to the community.
Adeti said tensions were mounting in the community and that the power outage in the area could cause further violence in an already unstable environment.
"I even ran away from home because of the anger of youth. I went to the PDS office, but according to the official, he is waiting for instructions from above before he can restore power in the community, "he said.
PENGUA's traditional chief of council, Nene Tetteh Zogli III, held a press conference in his Kpongunor palace on Friday, saying his people were short of patience while the PDS continued to deny them power, despite the directives. of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC). for it to be restored.
The PDS restored the power supply to the affected communities Friday night except Kpongunor, following an agreement reached at a meeting led by the Lower Manya Krobo MP, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, with the PURC mediation, general manager and staff of PDS Tema region, as well as six members of the Assembly struggling communities.
As part of the established roadmap, PDS was to restore all processors as soon as possible, in consultation with the higher authorities, if peace and staff security were guaranteed.
Residents say the power outage in the area is affecting households and businesses, especially cold storage operators.
Genesis of breakdowns
Kpongunor's angry youth held a spontaneous protest to petition the Kwaku town chief of the municipality, Kwaku Simon Tetteh, about their concerns about extra billing by the PDS and its ongoing mbad disconnection exercise.
On Wednesday, May 22nd, the morning of the fateful day, they had set up roadblocks and bombed the PDS staff of stones and sticks at Yohe, a community near Odumase Krobo, when they were are returned to the community to end their mbad disconnection exercise.
The angry young man broke a Nissan Pick Up PDS with registration number GV 2318-1 and it took the intervention of armed police to rescue the PDS personnel.
PDS staff decided to turn off the transformers by cutting off power to many communities.
Shortly after the attack, angry youth mobilized to hold a protest to petition the MCE, but armed police eagerly protected the Municipal Assembly's office. by preventing young people from entering the premises.
This led to clashes between the youth and the police. Numerous warnings were issued to disperse young people who were also attacking the police with stones and other instruments. The arrival of the regional police headquarters reinforcing team resulted in the brutal force and indiscriminate discharge of firearms, which resulted in the death of a 24-year-old man, while seven people, including a final year student of the JHS program, shot themselves in the leg while returning from the market.
Thirty-five people were arrested during the riot.
Injuries amid blows of warning
Three people were injured after a similar chaos Monday in Manya Kpongunor following a mbad disconnection exercise led by Power Distribution Services (PDS).
Reports indicated that the police building team fired tear gas after being attacked by the youths.
The PDS engaged in a mbad disconnection exercise with armed police in Somanya, Odumase Krobo and surrounding areas.
The exercise called "revenue mobilization" according to the Somans District PDS Director, Ing. Edward Ochire has become necessary due to the inability of many residents to pay their electricity bills since 2017. A situation, he said, has resulted in a decline in the company's revenue.
Hundreds of homes were disconnected during the current fiscal year that began on May 13, 2019 in the communities of Kpong and Nuaso.
A person was put behind bars for trying to resist the disconnection of his house. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, many affected residents have gone to PDS offices to pay their accumulated bills, which amounted to between 3,000 and 20,000 Ghc.
There has long been a quarrel between residents and workers of the ECG, now PDS. In 2017, angry residents of Somanya attacked the PDS office for overcharging.
Police vehicles were burned and property destroyed during violent attacks. Since then, many residents have refused to pay their electricity bills and threatened to attack PDS staff who were trying to unplug their homes.
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