The Eastern Regional Police Command has beefed up security at Krobo-Odumase where police and agitating residents clashed on Wednesday.
The violent clash ensued when the residents allegedly blocked the town road to prevent Power Distribution Services (PDS) officers who were being escorted by police officers to switch off the main transformer that supplies power to the town.
The disconnection exercise had been occasioned by unpaid electricity bills that had accrued from 2014.
The incident claimed the life of one of the protesters, while several others sustained various degrees of injuries.
Five police officers also sustained injuries.
Eastern Region Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), DSP Ebenezer Tetteh, told Adom FM on Wednesday, May 22, 2019, that the body of 14-year-old killed in the clash has since been deposited at the St. Martins De-Porres Hospital morgue at Agormanya Odumase-Krobo.
He said there was an uneasy calm in the town but police are bent on keeping peace and order.
DSP Tetteh could not confirm what resulted in the death of the boy but said residents attacked the police with various objects.
“The missiles that were coming were from all directions so I can’t tell whether a bullet from the police hit someone or not”, he stated.
“They were carrying cutlasses, stones, bottles and other instruments that can hurt somebody’s life and we have some at our disposal as an exhibit,” he said on Adom FM’s Burning Issues.
Member of Parliament (MP) for Lower Manya constituency, Ebenezer Okletey Tei-Larbi, expressed disappointment over the incident.
He denied reports the residents hurled missiles at the police.
He told Akua Boakyewaa Yiadom, host of Burning Issues, that he had previously petitioned the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission to tell PDS, the power distributor, to hold on with the disconnection.
This was for PDS to strike an agreement with the people to pay the bills in instalments.
“I was surprised they went on with the disconnection,” he said.
He further refuted claims that the residents deliberately refused to pay the bills, claiming that some of the residents have been defraying their debts over the years.
However, some residents said there was an existing Memorandum of Understanding over the payment of power bills between their forefathers and the Volta River Authority (VRA) when the government took part of their lands for the construction of the Akosombo Dam.
Meanwhile, PRO of United Krobo Foundation (UKF), a group that has been accused of engineering the mayhem, Tei Kwao Kassim speaking on the same show, indicated they are innocent of all accusations because they [UKF] have been sued by PDS and would be appearing in court tomorrow, Thursday, May 23, 2019, leaving them no time to be engaging in such acts.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
