The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has disconnected power to Gomoa Potsin, leaving a large section of the community without electricity for the past three days. The disconnection followed an altercation between members of a household and an ECG monitoring team during an inspection exercise. The team had reportedly identified a faulty meter at the property when the confrontation occurred, resulting in one ECG staff member sustaining injuries.
Following the incident, ECG cut power to the affected area, leaving residents and businesses to grapple with the consequences of the prolonged outage. The blackout has disrupted commercial activities and affected livelihoods, with residents appealing to ECG to restore power while condemning the attack on its staff.
Elizabeth Tetteh, a shop owner who operates a drinking spot and sells ice cream, said the outage had significantly affected her business. “I operate a drinking spot and sell ice cream. People are not buying because the drinks are not cold. The stock of ice cream I had has also gone bad. Most potential customers also think I am not operating because of the darkness,” she told Citi News.
Residents have also raised concerns about security in the area. Nana Yaw, a resident, said criminals had taken advantage of the darkness to break into one of his apartments and steal electrical cables. “We do not condone violence, and so we are appealing to ECG to reconnect us to the grid. Those of us living at New Site are really suffering. Thieves took advantage of the darkness to break into one of my apartments to steal cables,” he said.
The outage has also affected food vendors and cold store operators. Chop bar operator Elizabeth Kpodo said the disruption had negatively affected her income, while cold store operator Azara said she had been forced to use a standby generator after some of her stock went bad.
“I sell meat and drinks, so I had to get a standby generator after some of the meat got rotten. We have been without power for three days now,” she said. Assemblyman for the Potsin Electoral Area, Ebenezer Adams, said the prolonged outage was threatening livelihoods and appealed to ECG to restore power to the community.
He also pledged to assist the authorities in identifying and apprehending the individual alleged to have attacked the ECG staff member. Adams further apologised to the company on behalf of the community. “We render an unqualified apology to them. They should temper justice with mercy and come and reconnect us to the national grid,” he said.
