….Give two weeks ultimatum over outstanding issues
Electricity workers under the aegis of National Union of Electricity Employees ( NUEE),have cautioned the Minister of Power,Honorable Adelabu Adebayo over his alleged unguarded utterances, saying that they do reflect the true position of the sector most of the time.
The union lamented that since his assumption, the Honorable Minister has not deemed it necessary to reach out to critical stakeholders in the Power sector with a view towards engendering effective collaboration, optimizing productivity and increasing power output and impeccable Industrial Relations atmosphere required to achieve them, rather,he has embarked on a media frenzy , to misinform Nigerians and openly threaten workers in the sector, according to the union.
Towards this end, the union has issued two weeks ultimatum to the Minister,Hon Adebayo,to address outstanding issues in the sector,including the refusal to issue prepaid meters to Nigerians who are being compelled,to pay imposed crazy bills;while having less than 4,500mw output of electricity.
These were contained in a statement signed by the Acting General Secretary of NUEE, Comrade Dominic Igwebike and made available to Daily Champion on Monday.
Part of the outstanding issues, according to the statement, also include refusal of most Generating Companies ( GenCos), led by Egbin Power PLC, which has flagrantly disobeyed all extant laws since taking over in November 2013 and non- payment of 16 months arrears arising from severance; just to mention a few.
The statement read:” In order to achieve impeccable improvements and rejuvenate the Power sector, it is expedient that the Federal Government puts round pegs in round holes and not Appointees whose qualifications are political considerations “.
Continuing, the statement further read:” The Honourable Minister should be guided to the effect that the Power sector, did not experience any system collapse during the two (2) days warning strike declared across the nation ,by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which we are affiliated to.
” He should be educated to the effect that he cannot decree strike out of existence.
But the Minister has decided to play to the gallery; like some of his predecessors,by promising thousands of megawatts without any road-maps,to achieving them”.
