Tepa residents resist pre-paid metre installation

Many inhabitants of Tepa in the Ahafo Ano South District of the Ashanti Region on Sunday April 24, demonstrated against the Volta River Authority (VRA) for replacing their old electricity metres with prepaid metres.

The residents complained that they now had to pay more for electricity, as their credits run out mysteriously.

Spotting red arm bands, the protesters presented their grievances to the Tepahene during an Akwasidae durbar for the chiefs and people.

They urged the chief to cause the VRA to immediately stop the exercise of replacing the metres, while restoring old metres to households fitted with the new ones.

They complained that residents could not afford the high electricity rates, given that most of them worked predominantly as peasant farmers, who earned very little income.