How six Lower Manya Krobo residents sustained gunshot wounds in clash with military: The inside story

At least six persons have allegedly been shot by military personnel assisting personnel of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on Monday, August 22, 2022 when the ECG personnel went to disconnected a transformer at Nuaso, a suburb of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region.

Soldiers allegedly shot into a crowd that was massing up around the team undertaking the disconnection, resulting in the injuries.

The disconnection of the transformer followed an earlier clash in the day between the residents and the military/ECG team.

Six of the victims are said to be receiving treatment at the St. Martin de Porres Hospital at Agomanya.

Administrator of the facility, Mr. Emmanuel Bosompim confirmed to GhanaWeb that six persons had been brought to the hospital with gunshot wounds.

Assaults

The resumption of the prepaid metering exercise in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality following a close to one-month outage in the area was not without controversy with soldiers assisting the ECG allegedly brutalizing some residents.

The move is said to have been triggered by the resistance of the residents against the installation of the meters in their homes.

The residents, however, denied this assertion.

The victims who included men and women were whipped and hit with the buts of guns with several of them sustaining various degrees of injury in the process.
One of the victims, a woman sustained a fracture in her left arm during the assault.

Showing visible marks of from the attack on their arms, back, face and other parts of their bodies, the victims accused the soldiers of unprovoked attacks even when they did not oppose the rollout of the meters in their homes.

Other victims also narrated different accounts of how they were assaulted by the military, in some cases, they alleged that they were attacked without any reason even when they were no where near a meter – in the case of one victim, as he returned from the farm.

Assemblyman condemns highhandedness by military

Condemning the incident, Assemblyman for the Nuaso Old Town Electoral Area, Samuel Torgbor said he was not informed of the exercise prior to the team’s arrival.

“I just had a call that the ECG and soldiers are in town to install prepaid meters,” he said. “In fact, when I came to the grounds, I was not happy because you cannot beat somebody because of prepaid meters.

“You cannot use things that are not supposed to be used on human beings because of prepaid. I think there’s no understanding, I don’t know if they are going wayward, I don’t know.”

ECG reacts to reports of brutality

But the ECG in response blamed the residents for instigating the assaults on them.
PRO of the Company, Madam Sakyiwaa Mensah said, “In Nuaso Old Town, there was resistance.

“One woman threatened to pour hot oil on the ECG personnel and the military as well. A crowd started amassing around one ECG Team. The Military was able to receive a cutlass from one of those who were amassing around the ECG people.

“ECG condemns these attacks and unfortunate situations. We keep calling for peace and calm so we can discharge our duties peacefully.”