Residents of Sandema in the Builsa North Municipality of the Upper East Region will on Monday, August 14, embark on a demonstration to register their displeasure on frequent erratic power outages in the Municipality and its environs.
The Municipality for the past four months had consistently experienced unexplained frequent erratic power outages, especially at night, which rendered residents helpless and grumbling among themselves about the worrying trend.
The Paramount Chief of the area, Nab Azagsuk Azantilow in a recent interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) expressed concern about the situation, saying “We do not like the frequent power outages. It creates problems for us.”
Mr. Theophilus Awennisiak Akoba, the Convenor of the intended demonstration, told the GNA that the planned action was expected to draw the attention of duty-bearers to the frustrating power outages in the area.
He said the situation had damaged electrical appliances of residents, plunged the entire township into darkness and affected their businesses at night.
“Mostly at night, we do not get stable power supply and people’s electrical gadgets get damaged. We are poised to make duty-bearers hear our plight and initiate immediate solutions to solve the problem,” he said.
Mr. Akoba said one of the reasons officials of the Volta River Authority (VRA) in the area gave for the erratic power supply when organisers of the demonstration met them, was interferences of bats on the power cables.
“So I told them that if bats are one of the reasons for this frustrating situation, then the 37 Military Hospital area in Accra should never have power because of the countless number of bats there,” he noted.
He said information from the VRA also indicated that one line supplied power to the Municipality, the Builsa South District and the Yagba-Kobore District of the North East Region.
“So anytime the line has an issue, all these three Districts are affected,” Mr. Akoba said.
On security to ensure a peaceful exercise, the Convenor said they had met the Municipal Police Command and were assured of maximum security to ensure a peaceful exercise devoid of any disturbances or distraction to any public property.
“The Command assured us of maximum security, and also asked for our support to ensure a peaceful exercise. Tomorrow is a market day in Sandema so the Police were concerned that the demonstration could affect economic activities of traders.
“So we are mindful, and will conduct ourselves well in other not to disturb economic activities of other residents,” Mr. Akoba said.
He said the demonstrators were expected to converge at the main Sandema lorry station, and move to the Chief’s Palace to present a petition to the Traditional Council.
From there, they would use the National Health Insurance office road towards the main road that leads to Chuchuliga, take a turn on the left and move to the office of the VRA to present another petition.
He said the demonstrators would proceed through the Sandema Township to the Municipal Assembly to present a final petition to the Municipal Chief Executive, and return to the start-off point where organisers would address the crowd to climax the exercise.
Mr. Akoba noted that the demonstration was one of several measures organisers had in place to ensure the problem was solved, “For now, we will not put out our next line of action if we do not achieve results with the demonstration.”
