The management of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, has released a vehicle belonging to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) which it seized on Thursday.
Staff of GBC forcibly took possession of the vehicle after a disagreement with personnel of ECG, who drove to their premises on Thursday evening, to disconnect the company from the national grid over their indebtedness.
Personnel of ECG and the police inspected the seized vehicle before ECG was allowed to move it.
It was reported that the staff, supervised by their Regional Director, deflated the tyres of the vehicle that transported staff for the exercise, and blocked it from moving out of the premises.
But the management of GBC has denied the claim.
Ashanti Regional Director of the GBC, Sam Kwatia, who lodged an official complaint about the incident at the Asokwa District Police Command, said the ECG workers had unlawfully entered GBC’s premises to carry out the disconnection exercise.
GBC is said to be indebted to ECG up to the tune of GHS1.75 million.
The Public Relations Officer of ECG in the Ashanti Region, Erasmus Baidoo, told Citi News’ Ashanti Regional Correspondent, Hafiz Tijani, that several efforts had been made to retrieve the money amicably, but to no avail, lamenting that the amount was ballooning and that they needed to act as its been done with other power consumers.
“We went to GBC to demand payment. This is not the first time, we’ve been there on a number of occasions and anytime we go there, we do not receive anything. We decided to take them off, in an attempt to disconnect them, the manager in charge of the area felt that he wouldn’t allow us so they deflated the tires of the vehicle that we took to the place. They also used a vehicle to block our vehicle so that we will not leave the place…. The debt is accumulating and we needed,” he said in an earlier interview.
There have been concerns about government’s continuous support to the state broadcaster, with critics insisting that GBC should be self-sufficient by generating its revenue to run and pay its staff without relying on government subvention.
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