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That part of the country has been plunged into darkness for the past few days following the relocation of the Somanya office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to Juapong in the Volta Region over security concerns.
Even though ECG explained, through a press statement that the blackout was a result of sabotage by some “unscrupulous persons”, a youth group called the Coalition of Krobo Youth, held a press conference recently at which it said the outage was an “intentionally” planned punitive measure.
ECG relocated its office with the reason that its workers felt threatened by the unfriendly activities of a separate youth group called United Krobo Foundation.
There has been no love lost between the townsfolk and the state power distributor over the past few years in relation to hefty electricity bills issued to the locals.
A few years ago, this sparked an anti-ECG demonstration that led to the death of a teenager.
In recent weeks, however, the two youth groups have been trading words over ECG’s presence in the area.
While the United Krobo Foundation held a demonstration at which its members insisted ECG leave the area, the Coalition of Krobo Youth disagreed.
As part of efforts to defuse the rising tension in the area, the Inspector-General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, and his lieutenants visited Odumase Krobo and had talks with the paramount chiefs of Yilo and Manya Krobo traditional areas, Nene Oklepeme Nuer Annobaa Sasraku II and Nene Sakite II, respectively; and later met the two youth groups on Friday, 10 December 2021.
“We came to talk about the security of the situation that we find ourselves in and assess the security issue that has been occasioned by the situation you find yourselves and that is what constitutionally, my colleagues and I are responsible for. That situation has made the security demands in this environment more than expected. So, we brought in more police officers to keep the peace and protect you and your properties”, he told the youth.
He added: “We have gone beyond that and looking at what has actually caused the situation that you are experiencing now. We’ve invited the stakeholders involved, we’ve engaged your kings, we have engaged your elders, we’ve engaged the youth at the other side, we are engaging you now, you brought about the people who are in the centre of it; we have engaged them closed-door all because of your interest just to find a solution to it so that we can also de-escalate in terms of deployment and yet, some of you are the same people who came to burn our police station”.
“You are the same people who destroyed, you are the same people who pelted out people with stones and because we are over-patriotic, as if we are wood, you touch us and we are still working; we love this country, we love our job because we know that God will bless us and bless our children and the generation after us … so if you touch us and we don’t complain it doesn’t mean that we are fools. Because it is better to show maturity at this level that is why at times, your child can hurt you and you still love the child. That is why at times, your master can hurt you and you still serve the master”, he noted.
“Because of our humanity, you stand here and sometimes you show some level of arrogance without realising how ‘useless’ life is; how ‘sorrowful’ we are as human beings. And if you want to test it, let me give you a very simple example: how many of you have visited a mortuary before? How many of you have gone into where human beings who are dead are kept and stood there and eat before? How many of you have seen a human being dissected with the brains and everything and with the body opened like you are dissecting, maybe a goat for your Christmas party? How many? How many of you know the number of people who are going to be buried tomorrow? And yet, we behave as if we have arrived and you take the laws into your own hands and go on a spree of destroying left right centre”, the IGP pointed out.
He said: “I’m saying this based on intelligence we’ve picked over the week as to what you intend doing to compound the situation that you’ve found yourselves and that moved me into this town to tell you that, yea, it is very easy to destroy than to build and when you destroy and you are the future, come and tell me when I’m dead and gone and I’ll be in heaven and I know I’ll be a security chief also in heaven and I’ll be by the gate of Christ and I will decide who enters and does not and you’ll come and meet me there”.
“So, if you have a mindset of destruction, stop it because you’ll be destroying your own future”, he warned.
He urged them: “If you see somebody who has a mindset of destruction and you don’t stop it, whatever he destroys will come to affect you yourself. But if you choose not to stop it, if you choose not to encourage those people who have a mindset to destroy, we will come for them and we will come for them in a manner and a way that nobody will appreciate but God will”.
“So, anybody who wants to mess up, be ready for us. After messing up, you can probably run and hide a little while but this time around, you cannot hide forever. Every day that you are hiding, you are afraid because you know we’ll be coming and at times, even when I see that you are hiding, I’ll knock at the door and say I’ll come tomorrow. I won’t pick you now because you’ll move to another place and I’ll follow you”.
“So, let us start being responsible from today so that you’ll grow up to be responsible people that will be able to turn things around in this country. And you say you want light; maybe if you don’t get it today, you’ll get it tomorrow. So, be responsible”.
“And when – whichever time you get the light – you have issues and people want to use you, people want to take advantage of you in order to do their own things that will profit them and you allow yourself, you won’t have light again”, he warned the youth.
He observed: “This issue of light in my new adopted home of Odumase and Somanya has been too long. With its security implication, with the challenges that we have gone through, in terms of policing over the years, we, myself and my team want to stop this and stop it in a manner that will maintain the peace and security of this area so that you continue to live to your full potential. So, please, help us to police you in a way that will help you to live in peace to accomplish your God-given destiny. Don’t destroy your lives because of peer pressure. Don’t destroy your lives because of self-interested people who want to take advantage of you. Have your own mind to think”.
He urged the youth to be of good behaviour but had a stern warning to the recalcitrant once.
“We want you to go home and peaceful. We want you to go home and be law-abiding. We want you to go home and start thinking that the best way to live a decent life and have a good future is to live in peace with one another help the law-enforcement agencies to take away bad people from your midst for them to be put where they belong and those who will make noise beyond what we can contain, want to fight us with weapons, for them to be sent to the other side where some people will be sent to tomorrow [Saturday] …”
He said even “in your death, we’ll not let you have peace. That is our message to bad people”.
