TAMALE RESIDENTS EXPRESS RAGE OVER IRREGULAR POWER SUPPLY (PAGE 18, SEPT 3, 2011)

DRAMA unfolded at the offices of the Volta River Authority (VRA) in Tamale this morning when a large number of people besieged the premises to express their frustrations over a series of irregular power supply in parts of the metropolis. Minutes after a team of police personnel restored order at the VRA’s premises, a high powered police delegation also followed to lodge their own version of the complaints over the erratic power supply at the barracks and police headquarters. At the time of going to press, a team of technical personnel were dispatched to the various locations to repair the faults, whiles management was locked up in the meeting discussing the way forward. The police delegation, led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Simon Denteh, who is in charge of communications in the Northern Region, also included the Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Chief Inspector Ebenezer Tetteh, personnel of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and other personnel. ASP Denteh mentioned that in recent times there had been frequent on and offs at the barracks and headquarters and this impacted negatively on the work of the police. “When there is no power at the headquarters and other instalments, it has security implications on our work,” he noted. ASP Denteh said the VRA and the police must dialogue to ensure that all that is needed to be done to guarantee 24-hour electricity supply to all police installations in Tamale was done in due time. The Principal Security Officer of the VRA in the region, Mr Maxwell Kotoka and the Customer Service Supervisor, Mr Moro Ibrahim, who met with the police delegation, said the concerns of the police were legitimate. “We think that security is important and so we should not wait until there are negative developments before we act,” Mr Kotoka stated. He said the Area Manager would be informed after the meeting so that the necessary actions could be taken to restore lights to the police. Meanwhile, some of the residents who earlier swamped the VRA’s premises told the Daily Graphic that the erratic power supply was affecting them in several ways. “We kept ‘sal-la’ meat in the fridge and all that is gone bad. The other time my television developed a fault and the mechanic said it is the ‘light off and on’ that caused it,” Afa Mubarik, a resident of Tishigu stated. They said the VRA must be proactive in fixing the faults to avoid any future skirmishes. In response to these grievances, Mr Kotoka said the VRA could not be held responsible for many of the technical faults that resulted in unreliable power supply. “The fact is that anytime it rains, we record multiple problems with our installations due to the destruction caused to poles, transformers and wires,” he stated. He said the recent power failures that led to the agitations were traced to a faulty fuse that went off each time it was restored, adding that the technical team was on ground and would soon restore power to all affected areas.