OUR lead story yesterday with the banner headline: “Dumsor Hits Tamale…Over attack on staff of NEDCO” reported that several communities in the Northern regional capital of Tamale are likely to be saddled with power cut for a long period.
WHAT is likely to trigger this long dumsor (power cut) period, according to our story, follows attacks on workers of Northern Electricity Company (NEDCO) by some irate youth of Dohanayili, a suburb of Tamale.
THE supposed crime of the NEDCO workers was that they had gone to the Dohanayili to fish out residents who had resorted to illegal connection, thereby stealing from the state.
THIS is what angered the youth who chased the staff of NEDCO with clubs, machetes among other offensive weapons, and further threatening their lives if they should set foot in the area.
IN the first place, the action of the youth must be condemned in no uncertain terms. The fact is that they had no right in obstructing the NEDCO staff from doing their work, more especially when they had detected that residents in the area were using electricity illegally. That in itself is a criminal offence which is punishable under the laws of this country.
HOWEVER, the paper does not want to believe that the unruly action by the youth of Dohanayili is what is informing management of NEDCO to take the decision to cut power to the said locality.
ALREADY, we understand towns including Dohanayili, Fuo, Kukuo, Kobilmagu, Kpembeigu, Gumani, Kanville and Kanville-Tunayili—all suburbs of Tamale—have been plunged into darkness.
WE do not want to believe that the power cut in the above areas has any correlation with the Dohanayili incident.
THIS is why we are happy that NEDCO has come to emphasise that the dumsor in the above communities has no links to the incident at Dohanayili.
ACCORDING to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of NEDCO, Mr. Alhassan Ababa, though his outfit was unhappy with the actions of the youth, he refuted the allegation that NEDCO had taken these communities from the national grid.
IT is on this score that Today is urging NEDCO to quickly address whatever energy problems bedeviling the communities above so that power can be restored to them.
WE must understand that anytime there is a power cut in an area, the effect is not only felt by the residents, but more importantly companies located there. And this is exactly what is happening in these suburbs of Tamale.
MEANWHILE, we want to urge NEDCO to liaise with the police so that the perpetrators of this unlawful behaviour would be arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law.
WE must not allow such issues to go without punitive actions against the culprits or else we risk having it become a norm.
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