ECG disconnects Ashanti GBC over GH¢ 1.75 million debt

The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s (GBC) Garden City Radio in the Ashanti Region, has been taken off air after the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) disconnected the facility over a GH¢ 1.75 million debt.

The disconnection exercise was carried out on Thursday despite a plea by the Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid to the Minister of Energy to hold on with the disconnection exercise.

The plea which was carried in a letter read, “disconnecting power to their transmitters, especially those that serve rural communities means cutting off a section of the Ghanaian population from national discourse.”

“We entreat you to use your good offices to get ECG to stop these disconnections, while we (Ministry of Energy, GBC, NMC and the Ministry of Information) meet to find a solution to GBC’s indebtedness to ECG.”

Nonetheless, workers of the ECG entered the premises of the GBC to carry out the disconnection exercise.

An altercation however ensued between the workers of the ECG and GBC causing the latter to block the pick-up vehicle the ECG workers had brought in to carry out the disconnection exercise.

Police from the Asokwa District Command were later called in to maintain order.

Public Relations Officer of ECG in the Ashanti Region, Erasmus Baidoo, said several efforts had been made to retrieve the money amicably, but to no avail, lamenting that the amount was ballooning, and that they needed to act as it’s been done with other power consumers.

He however expressed disappointment in the Regional Director of the GBC who supervised the deflation of the tyres of ECG’s car.

The Ashanti Regional Director of the GBC, Sam Kwatia, has also threatened a legal action against the three workers of the ECG over what he called unlawful entry to the premises which enabled them to disconnect the power.

 Credit: Citifmonline.com