The strike actions embarked upon by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) on Tuesday may be called off today.
By this afternoon almost all the Transmission stations have been shut down.
A source close to one of the unions disclosed to BusinessStandards that a meeting between the two union officials of the electricity sector and the Federal Government has been planned for 3 pm Wednesday where all issues raised by the aggrieved unions would be sorted out.
The union made good its threat to shut down transmission stations across the country this morning.
The workers at about 10 am this morning began to shut down the transmission stations thereby plunging the nation into a partial blackout. The action could be total by the end of the day
The action commenced through a systematic shutting of the stations. As at 11.46 am this morning it is believed that about 60 percent of the stations have been shut down.
The action according to a source close to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) is just to put pressure on the government to accede to their demands. The source said even though some stations are still in operation, the intention was not to shut down everything at the same time.
Phase one of the threat by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE )was executed on Tuesday with the picketing of the headquarters of the Transmission Company Of Nigeria (TCN) to press home their demands for the implementation of yet-to-be-honoured agreements between it and the management of the company.
They complained about the alleged failure of the Federal Government to pay the entitlement of former staff of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in December 2019.
The aggrieved workers under the aegis of the national union of electricity employees NUEE said this is a prelude to an indefinite strike action expected to commence on August 17.
In a circular entitled “call to action”, the general secretary of NUEE, Joe Ajaero, directed them to ensure total compliance, vowing to paralyse operations of TCN nationwide over anti-masses activities.
The union has promised to escalate its action today by shutting done all the transmission stations in the country, thereby plunging the nation into total darkness. This means the nation’s electricity supply crisis could worsen from today following this impasse.
There is no doubt that this has implications for both the social and economic activities of the country. Doing so would further endanger the already badly managed and extremely fragile economy that is gasping for breath. It will result in losing a colossus amount of revenue by everybody in the country, aggravate insecurity and increase hunger.
To avert this, the Federal Government through the minister of state for Power Goddy Jedy-Agba made a passionate appeal to the union and demanded they suspend the strike action as he promised he would get back to the union in two weeks
.A letter signed by the Minister of State for Power and addressed to the General Secretary of NUEE said, “The Ministry of Power takes cognisance of your complaints therein and is committed to offering solutions that will be acceptable to all parties concerned.
