Blackout: Ngige Summons Emergency Meeting, Invites Electricity Workers After Nationwide Outage

An emergency meeting with National Union of Electricity Employees has been summoned by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.

This comes after electricity workers shut down services nationwide.

The workers embarked on industrial action on Wednesday and withdrew their services from the Kaduna Regional Headquarters of the Transmission Company of Nigeria in line with the union’s national leadership directive.

However, the minister on Wednesday afternoon, invited the union to a meeting aimed at resolving their grievances.

A source told Punch that the meeting would hold by 4 pm on Wednesday.

“The Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, has invited the electricity workers, who have shut down their services nationwide, for an urgent meeting in Abuja. The meeting will hold at 4 pm today,” the source informed our correspondent.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, claimed that the protesting workers do not have issues with his ministry but with the Head of Service.

Aliyu, however, assured Nigerians that the government has “all the ingredients” to solve the supply challenge soon.

On Wednesday morning, the NUEE withdrew its services from the Kaduna Regional Headquarters of the Transmission Company of Nigeria according to the directive of the union’s national leadership.

NUEE officials cordoned off the Mando TCN Station in the Kaduna state capital, cutting all operations, and forcing workers out of the company’s premises before locking the gate.

They are protesting the nonpayment of outstanding arrears owed to former workers of the now-defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, suspension of conditions of service and career path for workers and the directive by the TCN board to conduct promotion interviews for acting principal managers who are moving to Assistant General Managers.

The workers said the TCN Kaduna office which oversees operations in Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara, will resume operations only after the Federal Government meets all their demands.

The PUNCH also reports on Wednesday that the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company announced a shutdown of operations following the issues between the National Union of Electricity Employees and the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

“Due to the ongoing nationwide picketing of Transmission Stations by the NUEE, we are currently experiencing disruption of power supply as most stations within our network have been shut down.

“Kindly bear with us as we await an amicable resolution by the relevant stakeholders,” Ikeja Electric said in a statement shared on its Twitter page.

The organised labour had directed workers in the power sector to shut down and commence an indefinite strike over pending issues with the TCN.

The aggrieved workers under the aegis of the NUEE were at the Abuja national headquarters of the TCN Tuesday as a prelude to the proposed strike.

The union noted that the strike was in protest of a directive by the TCN Board mandating all PMs in acting capacity going to the Annual General Meeting to appear for promotional interviews.