ECG outages: Paying for destroyed appliances through the ‘nostrils’

The ‘proper dumsor years’ are gone. And during those ‘debilitating years’, power outages ‘engineered’  by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), somersaulted straight to the ‘dogs’.

And the ‘dogs’ ‘ensnared’ by consistent darkness and restlessness, barked consistently, to apparently ‘scare’   ‘dumsor’ but ‘dumsor’ was not perturbed at all.

‘Dumsor’ kept on wreak horror and havoc on humans, homes, houses, schools, companies, factories and many other businesses in the Republic of Ghana.

Eventually, when ‘dumsor’ was ‘arrested’, it was unable to fulfill the ‘difficult’ bail conditions, so it was kept at the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison.

And occasionally, when ‘dumsor’ is provoked ‘by the powers that be’, ‘dumsor’ will break jail and rush into ‘selected towns and cities’ of the country , to continue its action on any ‘innocent’ thing that stands in its way; including expensive electrical appliances.

And so it came to pass that, just recently, ‘dumsor’ escaped again from the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison and ‘rushed’ to the Ashanti Region, with ‘fury’.

And without any regard to His Majesty, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, ‘dumsor’ ‘nakedly’  ‘stormed’ the Manhyia Royal Palace and turned it upside-down; destroying all the expensive electrical appliances of the Great Asante King.

Apparently having ‘researched’ into ‘Ashanti war-history’, ‘dumsor’ first conquered the ‘vassal states’ of Ashanti before eventually ‘laying siege’  on Manhyia Royal Palace, thus, ‘attacking’ and ‘wrecking’ Otumfuo’s expensive electrical appliances with ‘venom’ and ‘vengeance’.

Indeed, Otumfuo has not been a happy man at all. He has expressed his dissatisfaction about the recent power outages in his kingdom.

Speaking during a recent courtesy call on him  by the Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Asantehene announced that the intermittent power outages had destroyed his electrical appliances.

“I have been experiencing power outages recently. The light goes off and comes back without caution” , Otumfuo told the Energy Minister, stressing that, “all my appliances have been damaged because of the outages.”

Responding, Dr Prempeh attributed the recent power outages in the region to a fallen telecommunication mast that destroyed two towers belonging to the Ghana Grid Company earlier in November.

He, however, assured residents that the Energy Ministry was working hard to resolve the problem.

Apart from the Ashanti Region, there have been power outages in some parts of the country, too. They included the Central and the Greater Accra regions. And the outages affected many companies and residential homes.

Reportedly, the effects of the ‘dumsor war’  on Ashanti , were remarkably ‘devastating’, as indigenes and residents in the region also complained loudly.

Akwasi Boadi, 45, a resident of Suame in the vicinity of Kumasi says: “It is not only the Asantehene whose electrical appliances are damaged by the ‘dumsor’ that hit the Ashanti Region.

“I, myself, and many others have lost a lot. All the sophisticated electrical equipment  I recently received from my brother based in Sweden, have been damaged by the ‘dumsor’.

“And the ECG is not telling us anything. They keep on destroying our things without paying for them. And such things are very expensive to repair.”

Sixty-two-year-old Mercy Konadu and a resident of Asafo in Kumasi also says all the electrical appliances in her entire household are damaged by the ‘dumsor’.

According to Mercy Konadu: “I hear the ECG has compensated the Asantehene for the damage caused by the ‘dumsor’ to his properties.

“If that is true, then for once, they have been a very responsible institution in Ghana. Always, ECG allows ‘dumsor’ to destroy our things without paying for them.

“People like us, who are nobodies, how can ECG or Ministry of Energy identify us, so as pay us compensation for the damage caused by ‘dumsor’ to our properties? “

Mercy Konadu says, ‘dumsor’ has been inflicting hardship on her household, “because anytime it happens, we have to pay through our nostrils to repair some of our gadgets, as we throw away the others, that cannot be repaired.”

Eugene Opoku Mensah is 52 years old. He is a resident of Bantama in Kumasi now. He says he has lived in Germany for over 20 years and during his stay there, no part of Germany experienced ‘dumsor’ for even one day.

“So, in Ghana, what are the real causes of ‘dumsor’ ?  And for God’s sake, for how long can this preventable situation be resolved once and for all?

“And what pains me is that ‘dumsor’ destroys people’s properties and ECG and the Ministry of Energy pretend that they are deaf and dumb.”

Opoku Mensah asks:”And so, ECG and Ministry of Energy; if it is true that you have compensated the Asantehene, what should the others do to claim their compensation?”

Contact email/ WhatsApp of author: asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)

BY G. FRANK ASMAH