Electricity workers threaten to cut power nationwide
…Demands TCN MD’s sack
The Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) said they would ground the entire power structure in the country unless the federal government intervenes.
The threat follows alleged administrative irregularities and high handedness levelled on the Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Usman Mohammed.
The development prompted workers of the organisation to picket the TCN on Tuesday, in Abuja, where commercial activities were brought to a halt for several hours.
They hinged their action on TCN’s MD, Mohammed, who they said government should relieve him of his appointment for flouting most of the administrative procedures.
The General Secretary, SSAEAC, Umar Abubakar, accused the TCN’s MD of solely conducting promotion examinations for staff without input from other management staff.
He was also alleged to have defaulted in remitting appropriate taxes to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), a development that also led to sealing off the organisation even before the workers staged their protest.
Mohammed was also accused of hijacking funds provided by the World Bank for projects in the power sector, including interference in Union’s activities by trying to polarize it.
He allegedly cleared large consignment of electrical materials from foreign donors at the ports but failed to deliver same to the warehouse of the organisation for proper accountability, before distribution to the relevant sections where they would be used.
The protesters said efforts by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige and his counterpart in the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola to intervene in the matter, proved abortive as Mohammed failed to turn up in several meetings arranged by the stakeholders.
SSAEAC said, “Our grievances stem from the fact that the MD on his own singled out promotion exercise and started to conduct it in his own way through the aid of consultants. He was even bragging that he set the questions himself.
“The motive is that he is not prepared to promote any staff, especially those who are due and most qualified for promotion; he probably wants to pick those who are his boys and who will be loyal to him.
“We have it on good authority that there were some container load of equipment that was cleared from the ports but was not taken to the store, this again is not the proper thing to do.
The protesters who carried placards with inscriptions such as: “we say no to tax fraud, “Sack UG Mohammed now to guarantee hope for power sector, “no to nepotism” were also seen chanting solidarity songs against the management.
