Nene Tetteh Zogli III calls for waiving of Krobo PDS bills

Divisional Chief of Piengua Traditional Area in Manya Krobo in the Eastern Region, Nene Tetteh Zogli III is calling on the Power Distribution Services, PDS to waive the entire controversial bills of the area as a step to end the feud between the power suppliers and consumers in the Krobo area.

The chief who made the call in an interview was hopeful that waiving the bills and “starting on a fresh note” was the surest step towards ending two years of hostilities between the two parties.

His call comes in the wake of the announcement by the PDS that it had cleansed the debt of the area to a significant low.

The PDS had announced that it had used its systems to “cleanse the debt using the CMS software” from ¢195,725,500.29 down to ¢84, 625,624.87.

“The initial debt of ¢195,725,500.29 was as a result of estimated bills of accumulated consumption due to challenges beyond the control of the then ECG,” it explained in a release Monday.

Following the recent impasse between residents of the Krobo land, the Police Service and PDS, a meeting was held between the Tema Regional Management of the PDS, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Member of Parliament for the Lower Manya Krobo and some Assembly members.

This was to fashion out a roadmap to bring peace and the residents settling the debts owed PDS was outlined.

However, the item '6' of the roadmap stated, “PDS has cleansed the debt, using the CMS software of Krobo areas from GH5195,725,500.29 down to 84, 625,624.87.”

But Nene Tetteh Zogli III is not amused by this announcement. To him, the surest way to maintain the gains made towards a peaceful resolution of the whole hullabaloo is to waive the entire controversial debt.

“The PDS should waive the entire bills and start on a fresh note and this will solve all the troubles”, he averred.

In 2017, upon a series of engagements and negotiations with the residents, the ECG was granted access to capture their actual electricity consumption.

This led to the process of “data cleaning and reconciliation” of their bills which according to PDS, is a normal process of correcting billing anomalies.

PDS stated categorically that “the reduction is not a waiver but the result of a normal auditing billing process which took place in 2017 with regards to customers of the Krobo enclave.”

The residents had insisted that the bills were outrageous and demanded the power company investigates the cause of the sudden rise.

The development has led to several clashes between the residents on one hand and the police and PDS on the other hand with the latest being May 22 where seven persons were shot resulting in one death.

Previous protests also saw several people hospitalised after they sustained varied injuries with the police arresting several others for their roles in the disturbances.