Striking workers of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Wednesday shutdown the electricity national grid causing blackouts across the country.
The impact of the strike began unfolding at 10am Wednesday when the grid dropped from 4,149 Megawatts recorded at 6am to 2,600MW. The grid capacity continued to drop as more workers at transmission stations downed tools.
It fell further to 939.4MW at 3pm and finally recorded zero generation at 4pm.
NUEE General Secretary, Joe Ajaero had in the letter calling out the workers for strike said the directive for the promotion interview was in contravention of the workers’ condition of service and career progression path. Saying that it was done without the relevant stakeholders.
NUEE expressed the “stigmatization of staff from the office of the Head Service of the Federation from working in other areas in the power sector.
“Refusal of the Market Operator to fund the payment of entitlement of ex-PHCN staff as agreed in December 2019 agreement after an industrial action by the union”.
However despite the intervention of the Minister of State Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba who had appealed for a two weeks grace to allow the government address the issues raised by the workers, the strike action went on.
The FCT Branch Chairman of NUEE, Godfrey Abah who spoke with newsmen said the action will continue until their demands are met by the government and the TCN management.
Abah noted that though the workers were not happy that the nation has been left without electricity supply, he said the embarrassment is on the Federal Government.
