I will lead demo against ECG, GRIDCO over 'dumsor' – Ashanti Regional Minister

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, has threatened to lead people in his region to demonstrate against the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) over the current erratic power supply.

According to Osei Mensah, his decision to demonstrate against these two companies follows the recurring power outages without any reasonable explanation of the actual problem.

Speaking on Kumasi-based Angel FM in an interview monitored by MyNewsGH.com, the regional minister noted that he has yet to meet the Ministry of Energy to find out the cause of power outages in his region.

“The word of caution I’m sounding to the ECG and GRIDCO is that if I don’t get a satisfactory explanation after listening to the Ministry of Energy with their response, I’ll demonstrate against them,” he threatened.

The angry minister further noted that though he is part of the government, he will not sit down for these two companies to deny the people of his region electricity, especially when other regions are not experiencing a similar situation.

“I’m saying this, and everybody should put on record, I’ll be the first government appointee, the first regional minister to lead a demonstration in this region if they are not able to give a reasonable explanation”, Osei Mensah told Kwame Tanko in his interview.

“I’ll lead a demonstration in the region, and when the time comes, nobody should come and stop me,” he added.

The threat from the minister is based on the fact that most parts of Greater Kumasi have been experiencing power outages in the past months.

This situation has also generated a lot of discussion among citizens in the region with the question of whether “dumsor” is back.

Residents have called on the Electricity Company of Ghana to devise a timetable. Meanwhile, in an earlier statement, ECG said they had resolved all problems.

If the threat by the minister is carried through, it will make M. Simon Osei Mensah the first minister in the country to have led a demonstration against his government.