Retract your threats or wallow in darkness – NEDCO tells residents of Dohanayili

Residents of Dohanayili are still sleeping in darkness several days after a rainstorm resulted in power cuts. But that was preceded by a fist-fight between youth of the town and some officials of the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) .

Officials of NEDCO said they “will not restore power to the community if the youth do not withdraw their threat of killing any official of NEDCO”.

The youth of Dohanayili, a suburb of Tamale in the Northern Region, on July 5, 2017 launched an attack on bailiffs and some staff of NEDCO during their line of duty in the community.

The bailiffs were in the community to present summons to some 20 residents who were caught illegally consuming power after an investigation by NEDCO.

Officials of NEDCO reported the act to the Tamale Circuit Court which sent bailiffs to summon the suspects but due to the poor street naming in Ghana, the disconnection team of NEDCO offered to accompany the bailiffs to serve the summons.

However, sooner have the team arrived, than matches, local pistols, and catapults wielding mob attacked the team.

The team together with the bailiffs took to their heels leaving behind a NEDCO branded vehicle, the vehicle caught the attention of the mob who to serve their anger, deflated three out of the four tyres of the vehicle.

After deflating the tyres, the youth further issued a threat to NEDCO indicating they, “will kill any staff of NEDCO who shows up to pick the vehicle”.

Fear gripped NEDCO officers with the help of some armed security officers towed the deflated vehicle from the community the next day. Unfortunately for residents of Dohanayili, a stormy rain pulled down two out of the five transformers in the community on Saturday July, 8 2017 which needed the presence of NEDCO officials to rectify the problem.

But according to the Public Relations Officer of NEDCO Alhassan Abbaba, “until the youth retract their threat, no official of NEDCO would step a foot in the community”.

This he said owing to the fact that staff of NEDCO in 2016 were severely beaten up by some residents of Lamashegu, also a suburb of Tamale, something that came on the back of threats from residents who had also been cited in illegal connections.

Mr Abbaba, revealed the company will not risk the lives of its workers. Meanwhile, the Tamale Metropolis Police Command has initiated peace talks between some opinion leaders of the community and the top hierarchy of the power distribution company.