MONROVIA – Residents of the Airfield Shark’s, Old and New Matadi and Lakpaze Communities have written the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) about a planned demonstration if the LEC failed to restore power to their respective communities within 48 hours.
Report by Edwin G. Genoway, Jr., [email protected]
The residents in their communication to the LEC said their communities have been without electricity for more than four months since their transformers got damaged.
“We want to inform the management of the LEC of our plan to stage a huge demonstration in demand of restoring power in our communities. For over the past four months our communities have been out of power due to the lack of transformers,” they stated in the letter.
They further stated that they are tired of awaiting the LEC to replace their transformers. “We are tired informing the LEC Management to come and restore power but to no avail; the lack of electric power in our communities has hampered lots of economic activities including clinics and schools not functioning mainly at night,” they claimed in the letter.
The letter further stated that, “Our kids struggle in these modern days to study either under Chinese lights or candles, houses are getting burned because our people who normally used LEC have return to the use of generators, crime rate have increased in the areas due to the lack of lights at night in our areas,”.
The residents in their letter to the LEC threatened to block the main entrance from Vamoma including the Old and New Matadi turning points in order to claim the attention of President George Weah and the government.
“Due to the refusal of LEC to restore our power, the above mentioned communities have resolved to take protest action by blocking the main road from Vamoma, Old and New Matadi turning point to claim the attention of the president and government,” the letter states.
A copy of the letter in the possession of the FPA did not state the date and time of the demonstration by the three communities.
FrontPageAfrica has gathered that there was a massive meeting on Monday April 08, 2019 in Matadi by three communities as how the protest would be like.
It was reportedly discussed in the meeting that residents from the Old and New Matadi Estates will block the road from Matadi heading towards Fiamah while those from the Sharks and Lakpaze Communities are expected to block the entrances into Afield from VAMOMA junction and Sharks, respectively.
Representatives from the three communities were charged with the responsibility to recruit young people and provide posters sheets for the protesters.
It is reported in the meeting that the planned demonstration by the three communities is the first phase, when there is no result, the residents have a plan B’ to move to the LEC compound in West Point and at the front of the President’s office at Foreign Ministry.
One of the organizers of the protest from the Matadi Estate, Makardoh Jones told FrontPage Africa that the communication send to the LEC was just to inform the company how reckless the LEC is serving customers.
We gave the letter to a guy called Steven Fakollie in one of the manager’s office at LEC, if he refused to submit it, then it is up to him and LEC, but what I will not say to you here is the time that we will stage the protest because we want to take them by surprise,” he expressed.
Another planner, Ebenezer Payne of the Lakpaze Community said there is no more room for the communities to wait for the LEC to restore their transformers.
“We will stand tall and mobilize people, since the LEC people are reckless and heartless to its customers, we will also tell them that our money we paying to buy current does not belong to LEC. Our children in darkness, our houses are dark and the criminal rate is high in the community, we will prove to the LEC that we too need light,” he expressed.
The lack of electric power in the communities has caused many people to return to generators.
Hundreds of Liberians in Monrovia and its environs have complained that the LEC allegedly sells transformers in communities that have damaged transformers and need repair or changing.
Many of the residents who spoke with FrontPage Africa said their damaged transformers cannot be replaced or repaired due to the communities’ incapacity to generate fund to change their transformer, something which many are of the conviction is affecting the three communities.