After spending one month in prison, 12 suspects, who damaged items at the Somanya office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Police Station in the Eastern Region, were granted a bail in the sum of GH¢70,000 with two sureties each by the Koforidua Circuit Court on Tuesday.
The suspects, Adamptey Jones Dendenden, Teye Israel, Michael Adjei Nortey, Theophilus Narh, Kosivi Amana, Wisdom Tetteh, Jerry George Klutse, Sackey Wisdom Larweh, Senyo George, Felix Tawaih, Tetteh Emmanuel and Bacha Emmanuel, were ushered into the courtroom on Tuesday morning by about 40 police personnel from the National SWAT and RDF Unit.
They were charged with causing unlawful damage, conspiracy to riot, rioting with weapons, unlawful assembling and causing unlawful damage to properties.
The court, presided over by Ms. Mercy Adei Kotei, had on two occasions, rejected the bail application by their lawyer, Simon Animley.
About 1,000 irate residents of Somanya, the capital of Yilo Krobo Municipality, last month attacked the Somanya Police station following the arrest of the ring leader, who led the youth to vandalise the office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Emmanuel Adamptey, an assembly member for the Sawer Electoral Area, a suburb of Somanya, who allegedly instigated the riots, was picked up by police from the Somanya Police Command.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that his arrest infuriated the youth, who were armed and stormed the Police Station to demand his release.
The paper gathered that the ECG installed new meters in houses at Somanya a few years ago, and that after the installation, the company failed to serve the residents with bills at the end of every month, making the bills escalate.
Those, who are also using the old meters, were not served with their bills.
According to scores of the residents, who spoke to the paper, the ECG staff just walked into their homes and served them with the accumulated bills, ranging between GH¢1,000 and GH¢10,000 which they couldn’t pay.
The opinion leaders among the crowd said that after serving them with the bills, the ECG gave them a one-week ultimatum to pay the bills or their power supply would be curtailed.
Subsequently, they said some houses were disconnected. 14 suspects were later arrested in connection with the attack.
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