Residents in fishing communities on the Afram Lake at Bonkrase community in the Ahenase Electoral Area in the Kwahu East District of the Eastern Region are boiling with anger at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for refusing to connect their community to the national power grid.

The residents blamed the chief of the Ahenase, Nana Baduu Agyekum II, Eastern Regional Secretary of the NPP, Mr Giff Konadu, and District Chief Executive (DCE) Kwahu East District Assembly headquarters at Abetifi, Mr Isaac Agyapong for being the main brain behind their electricity power connection problem.

They pointed out although the electricity transformers and poles were already installed within the Bonkrase community somewhere in November 2020, these top self-seeking personalities stopped the Chief Director of the Energy Commission to extend the electricity to Bonkrase community.

They alleged that these personalities had exhibited this inhumane act to stop the extension of the electricity to Bonkrase community, ostensibly because they publicly tagged all the residents in fishing communities on the Afram Lake at Bonkrase as the staunch supporters and members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

They disclosed that prior to the 2020 general elections when the campaign team of the NPP including the DCE and incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) visited the Bonkrase fishing community, they advised the residents to vote massively for the NPP in the 2020 general elections to retain the political power.

"And that when one of the residents of Bonkrase community asked whether if they voted for the NPP in the 2020 general election, the NPP government would still be ordered for shooting and killing of their cattle as was done somewhere in May 2019 when the current DCE allegedly ordered some gun-wielding military personnel to indiscriminate shoot of their cattle to die. This question didn't go well with the NPP campaign team led by Giff Konadu," the residents said.

Suddenly, the residents disclosed that Mr Konadu publicly stated in the glare of the public that they would ensure that the NPP government will not connect the Bonkrase community to the national grid.

Shockingly, the residents told that the contractors had stopped the work at the Bonkrase and rather extended the electricity power to the Tokrom, the nearby fishing community which was far from them.

The worrying part, according to them was when the chief of Ahenase, Nana Baduu Agyekum II invited the Assemblymember of Ahenase Electoral Area, Honorable Fiase Francis, Bonkrase Unit Committee Chairman, Mr Gborgbor Simon to a meeting at his palace a couple of weeks ago to try to know why the Bonkrase community was denied the connection of the electricity power.

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All of the sudden during the discussion on the issue, according to the residents, the Ahenase chief openly told he has played an instrumental role to the stoppage of the project at Bonkrase.

This, he said was because he was told that the residents hooted at the Eastern Regional Secretary of the NPP, Mr Giff Konadu when he led to the team to the Bonkrase area to campaign in 2020 general elections.

The residents said the chief informed the meeting that he was among the people who informed the contractors not to extend the electricity power to the Bonkrase community.

Fuming with anger, the residents have issued a one-month ultimatum to the central government to connect their community to the national grid or face their wrath indicating that the community has been denied its share of national development as it cannot boast of a single social amenity provided by the government over the past 30 years.

“We the people of Bonkrase in the Ahenase Electoral Area in the Kwahu East District of the Eastern Region are telling the President Akufo-Addo of the NPP government that enough is enough. We have suffered for so long and we are getting ourselves prepared for resistance against the politicians if nothing is done about our concerns,” the residents stressed.

While threatening to stage a massive demonstration, the residents argued that Bonkrase community has been excluded from all developmental projects with regards to education and healthcare, hence the April 2021 deadline.

“When it comes to voting, Bonkrase area is fully represented because there is a polling station with a provisional total voter population. However, when it comes to development, it is nil. Logically and conclusively, Bonkrase area and its environs can be best described as voting materials that are always used every four years during voting after which they are deserted.”

The Bonkrase Unit Committee Chairman who spoke Soireenews also bemoaned the fact that even after several meetings and subsequent assurances by the Chief Director of the Energy Commission, electricity had still not been extended to their community.

Describing the situation as worrying, the spokesperson said most of the fishing communities situated along the Afram Lake in the Ahenase Electoral Area of the Kwahu East District of the Eastern Region had been connected to the national power grid.

According to Mr Gborgbor, in 2019, the Assemblyman, Honorable Fiase and some residents helped to support the workers with feeding and labour” to install electricity poles, which some of them have since gone rotten. Unfortunately, nothing came of it.

He stated that “Our great grandfathers, our fathers laboured for Ghana, they paid levies, everything. But up to now, we don’t have any government facilities here…Are we not Ghanaians?… Why are we suffering like that?” he questioned.

To this end Mr Gborgbor Simon has appealled to President Nana Akufo-Addo to intervene.

Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater Accra Regional Chief Correspondent