Blackout: Ngige summons emergency meeting, invites electricity workers

 

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has summoned an emergency meeting with the National Union of Electricity Employees who had 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, who confided in our correspondent, said 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 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.