Odumase Krobo shooting victims detained at hospital over unpaid bills

Two victims of the Police shooting incident at Odumase Krobo in the Eastern Region have been detained at the St. Joseph Hospital in Koforidua over failure to pay their medical bills.

The two-Ruth Mankattah ,18, and Korletey Tetteh ,41, are unable to pay Ghc6, 580 and GH¢8,000 medical bills given them respectively hence unable to leave the hospital having been discharged. Both made initial deposit of GH¢2000 paid by the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly when admitted a month ago, upon directive by the Eastern Regional Minister Eric Kwakye Darfuor to the assembly to foot the medical bills of all seven persons injured during the clashes.

The right leg of Ruth Mankattah, was amputated on June 12,2019 by Orthopedic Surgeons after several diagnoses and treatment failed to heal the injured limp due to the gravity of injury.

Ruth Makathar, 18, student of Odumase Krobo Anglican JHS was accidentally shot in both legs after she was caught up in the Police clashes with the agitating power consumers while returning from school hence could not take part in the just ended Basic Education Certificate Examination.

Her right knee was penetrated by the bullet while the left leg suffered minor injury by another bullet.

Korley Tetteh was similarly shot in the leg but fortunately underwent successful surgery.

Background

Angry youth of Kpongunor organized a spontaneous protest to petition the Municipal Chief Executive for the Area, Kwaku Simon Tetteh, on their concerns on over billing by PDS and its ongoing mass disconnection exercise.

The youth had earlier in the morning mounted road blocks and pelted the PDS Staff with stones and sticks at Yohe, a community near Odumase Krobo when PDS staff went to the community to discontinue its mass disconnection exercise.

The irate youth smashed a PDS Nissan Pick Up with Registration Number GV 2318-1. It took the intervention of armed Police personnel to rescue the PDS staff.

The PDS staff decided to switch off the transformer cutting off power supply to the entire area.

Shortly after the attack, the angry youth mobilized to embark on a protest to petition the MCE but the armed Police rushed to protect the Municipal Assembly Office by preventing the youth from entering the premises.

This led to clashes between the youth and the Police. Many warnings shots have been fired to disperse the youth who are also attacking the Police with stones and other implements.

A 24-year-old was shot dead in the process with Seven others sustaining injuries.

Thirty-five(35) persons were arrested.

Three people were injured after a similar chaos earlier on Monday at Manya Kpongunor over mass disconnection exercise by Power Distribution Services (PDS).

Reports indicated that the Police reinforcement team fired tear gas after they were attacked by the youth.

PDS was embarking on a mass disconnection exercise with armed Police personnel in Somanya, Odumase Krobo and its environs.

The exercise dubbed “Revenue Mobilization” according to Somanya District Manager of PDS Ing. Edward Ochire, has become necessary due to the failure by many residents to pay their electricity bills since 2017. A situation he said has led to revenue shortfalls of the company.

Hundreds of houses have been disconnected in the ongoing exercise which started May 13, 2019 from Kpong and Nuaso communities.

One person was put behind bars for attempting to resist disconnection of his house. Since the exercise began, many of the affected residents have been trooping to the offices of PDS to pay their accumulated bills ranging between GH¢3,000 and GH¢20,000

There has been long standing feud between residents and workers of ECG now PDS. In 2017, angry residents in Somanya attacked PDS office for over billing.

Police vehicles were torched and properties destroyed in the violent attacks. Many residents have since refused to pay electricity bills and have threatened to attack PDS staff who attempt disconnecting their homes.

Energy Minister Peter Amawu later visited the troubled community and promised to constitute a committee to investigate the incident which is yet to be done.