Blackout in Lagos, South East, Kaduna, Abuja, others as electricity workers begin strike, power supply drops from 4000mgw to 700 nationwide

• As electricity workers carried out their strike threats there was blackout across Lagos State, Enugu and others on Wednesday following the nationwide strike by electricity workers under the aegis of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE). Ikeja Electric Plc, Eko Electricity and Enugu Electricity Distribution Company confirmed the development in separate public notices to their customers. The DisCos said the picketing of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) by the union members had plunged customers under their networks into darkness.“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 amicable resolution by the relevant stakeholders. Thank you for your usual understanding and cooperation,” Ikeja Electric said. Similarly, EKEDC said the grounding of activities at the TCN controlled power stations had led to disruption of electricity supply to customers across the country. The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) announced power supply disruption within the South-East due to strike by electricity workers. This is contained in a statement made available by the Head, Corporate Communications of EEDC, Mr Emeka Ezeh, on Wednesday in Enugu.It said “Following the industrial strike embarked upon by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), power stations operations across the franchise area of EEDC plc have been disrupted. As a result of this, all our feeders are out of supply and this has affected supply to our esteemed customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states,” he said.

 According to him, consultations are ongoing among critical stakeholders in the power sector to address the issue and possibly restore supply. “The management of EEDC hereby encourages customers and neighbourhood associations to be vigilant and protect electrical installations within their environment against elements who might take advantage of this outage to vandalise installations,” he said. The EEDC spokesman also appealed for continued patience and understanding of the company’s esteemed customers “while this is resolved”. Electricity workers under the aegis of NUEE are protesting the non payment of outstanding arrears owed to former workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

NUEE is also protesting 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 among others.

“In the meantime, we would like to reassure our esteemed customers that we are currently working with the relevant regulatory authorities and the parties involved to reach an amicable resolution. Thank you for your understanding”, the DisCo said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NUEE in a notice signed by its General Secretary, Mr Joe Ajaero, had directed its members to stop work  effective Aug. 17. The union had earlier issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Chief Executive Officer of TCN on May 18, threatening to down tools if its complaints were not resolved.

“You are hereby enjoined to mobilise immediately for serious picketing of TCN Headquarters and Stations nationwide over the directive by the TCN Board that all PMs in acting capacity going to AGM must appear for a promotion interview,” the letter said. This directive is in contravention of our Conditions of Service and Career Progression Paths and was unilaterally done without the relevant Stakeholders”, the union said. The union also decried the failure of the authorities to pay the entitlement of former staff of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in December 2019.