Residents protest at NEDCo office in Kpandai over power disconnections

Tension erupted in Kpandai in the Northern Region on Thursday after residents from four communities staged a protest at the district office of the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) over the disconnection of electricity to their homes.

The angry residents, drawn mainly from Lesseni, Gbanderi, Benafedo and Jentimah, stormed the NEDCo office in Kpandai town demanding the immediate restoration of power supply to their communities.

According to the residents, the disconnections followed an exercise by NEDCo to replace postpaid meters with prepaid meters after the company detected alleged irregularities involving inaccurate meter readings and suspected underbilling in the affected areas.

The protesters claimed that officials from NEDCo visited the communities on Monday and disconnected electricity supply, leaving residents without power for several days.

They further stated that several attempts to engage the company and appeal for the restoration of electricity proved unsuccessful, despite the impact of the outage on businesses and students preparing for the ongoing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

The situation reportedly escalated as frustrated residents confronted officials at the NEDCo office.

Security personnel, together with the District Chief Executive for the area, later intervened to calm tensions and prevent the situation from turning violent.