Staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) were on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, spotted at the premises of Parliament following a reported debt exceeding GH₵23 million according to sources.
The power supply company is on an ongoing Operation Zero Balance initiative which aims to recover unpaid debts from various customers.
The operation also ensures that individuals and entities owing them are disconnected from the national grid.
It is unclear if the presence of the staff in Parliament is to disconnect the legislature from the national grid.
Meanwhile, the House had suspended sitting for over two hours as at the time this report was being filed.
The ECG for some days now have disconnected power supply to several individuals and institutions owing them utility tariff.
Recent in their disconnection spree was the one at the Accra Academy Senior High School over some unpaid arrears.
Reports indicate students had to resort to the usage if flashlights to study on the night of Monday, February 19, 2024, due to the total blackout resulting from power cut.
ECG cuts power supply to Accra Academy SHS over unpaid bills
A teacher who anonymously spoke with Accra-based Citi FM indicated it was the first time he had experienced such incident throughout his teaching career.
He said he was informed about the situation by one of his colleague teachers when the ECG team visited the campus to carry out the disconnection.
The exercise, according to the teacher, was extended to the teachers staying on campus using prepaid metres.
The teacher noted that the ECG officials who claimed to be from the head office, were adamant in their directive to disconnect the power, despite pleas and attempts at negotiation.
He urged the Electricity Company to restore the school’s power supply, citing concerns for the students’ safety and the potential impact on teaching and learning.
“In fact, today is the saddest day in my life as a teacher who has worked for over 31 years. I have never seen this anywhere… I got a call from one of my colleagues that the ECG guys are on campus and their main mission is to disconnect the school because of some kind of indebtedness, and to be frank, we are not the ones who are supposed to pay this amount to them, and what pains me is that the teachers who are staying on campus, they are on prepaid and they have all been disconnected and currently we have about 3000 students who are in school and look at the situation we find ourselves. So if something happens to any of the students who is going to be blamed for what has happened.”
“…And then we called those who came in, and they said powers from above say they should disconnect us because of that amount that we owe. We don’t even know how much we owe because we are not the ones who are supposed to pay…we have done everything possible for them not to do what we are currently going through, but they never listened to us. Simply because they said they were sent from their headquarters to come and do this exercise…So I am appealing to the ECG leaders that at least they have students in schools and if that is the way they were treated when they were in school I am not sure they would have gotten to this level. So I am appealing to them that they should come back and do the needful,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the ECG, Samuel Dubik Mahama, has apologised to the school for the development which he said was a mishap.
ECG’s Managing Director apologises to Accra Academy authorities for power cut
By Felix Anim-Appau with additional files from Komla Klutse, TV3
