IF their demands are not met in the next two weeks, the recently disengaged electricity workers of Nigeria may begin to disrupt electricity supply and further throw the nation into power crisis, going by their threat in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Monday.
The disengaged employees were former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) workers before it was sold by the Federal Government to the new power company, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) Plc.
Protesting on Monday in Ibadan, the workers said they would soon resort to self help if their demands were not met after the expiration of a 14-day ultimatum.
Their threat was contained in a letter addressed to the Minister of Power, Abuja, and signed by Mansur Musa and Joe Ajaero, President and General Secretary, copies of which were made available to journalists at the peaceful protest venue.
At the Capital Building, MKO Abiola Way (former Ring Road) Ibadan office of the power company, the protesters deplored what they called ‘flagrant abuse of human Trade Union rights’, accusing the new owner of the power sector of being criminally silent over their plight.
Under the aegis of National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), the workers lamented that “despite repeated assurances by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, as well as the Minister of Power that there would be no hand-over until the resolution of all labour issues, it is sad to realise that two months after the hand over, these issues have remained unresolved.
“From the look of things, it appears that the reform process is aimed at inflicting pains on workers and Nigerian people as government has earmarked about 50% of the workforce in Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), a sub-sector still under government control, for disengagement”, the workers stated.
It was disclosed that all the collective agreements entered into by the union with government in the power sector had been violated, stressing that over 10,000 workers in the power sector had not been paid their severance entitlement as at the time of writing the letter.
Similarly, the union said the death benefit of over 1,000 people, who died in active service, were yet to be paid to their families while pension deduction of about 48,000 workers between July, 2012 to date had not been paid.
The Vice-President (West) of the union, Rauf Alamu Oloyede, who addressed the protesting and placard-carrying workers, urged them to remain peaceful in their agitation, noting that the purpose of the protest was to create awareness.
While asking them to remain steadfast and pray for the union leaders, he assured the workers that “we have the capacity and capability to engage the new management and we shall do that”.
In his reaction to the situation, the Principal Manager, Public Affairs, Tokunbo Peters, explained that all the issues raised in the letter, not addressed to his company, were Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) matter in Abuja and they were being attended to accordingly.
He, nevertheless, disclosed that the new management of Ibadan company had shown concern about the disengaged members of staff, following which no fewer than three meetings had been held with the appropriate authorities in Abuja in the last two months that the formal hand over took place.
