UNLESS there is an urgent intervention from relevant quarters, the management of Ikeja Electric (IE) has alerted its consumers of plans to shut down its operations.
The threat to shut down may not be unconnected with the picketing of its corporate headquarters office in Ikeja, Lagos, yesterday by members of the labour union.
Ikeja Electric and Labour have been engulfed in crisis in the last one month over the disengagement of some workers which Labour said did not follow due process.
members of Nigeria’s Organised Labour and civil society group, Citizens’ Access to Electricity Initiative (CATEIN) had yesterday, picketed the head office of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Alausa in Lagos State.
The protesters who arrived the Ikeja Disco office as early as 6:30am, came in 10 Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) vehicles, blocked the main entrance of the company with one of the buses, while singing solidarity songs, preventing customers from gaining access into the complex.
They were equally protesting against the sack of 400 workers of the electricity company without following due process and pulling out of discussions brokered by security agencies comprising the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Nigeria Police force, following an initial protest embarked upon by Labour. The protest, besides the increase in tariff without commensurate increase in power supply, was also against outrageous billing system of the Disco, load shedding, unavailability of meters to customers, non-payment of exit entitlements to 3,000 PHCN workers two years after privatisation and the non-payment of the severance entitlements of over 50,000 PHCN staff covering 16 months from July 2012 to October 2013.
The National Coordinator, CATEIN, Abdulsalam Fashola, said the peaceful protest will continue until the Federal Government and the management of the Ikeja Disco accede to the yearnings of Nigerians for improved power supply.
But the development took a different twist yesterday when IE in a text message to its customers said it may have to shut down operations across its network following what it termed illegal barricade of its facilities by Labour union, saying, “unfortunately, this action will further worsen the power supply situation. All inconveniences are deeply regretted,’’ the text message read.
In a related statement by the Head, Corporate Communications, Mr. Felix Ofulue, IE said it has filed a suit including a motion for interlocutory injunction restraining the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), their agents, officers, privies, representatives or otherwise, whether acting of their own accords or in concert with other bodies, persons or unions, from disrupting or shutting down the operations of the company.
According to Ofulue, the injunction sought also to restrain the above named parties, their agents and representatives from restricting the free movement of staff, customers and technicians in and out of all its business premises pending the determination of the suit filed on April 4, 2016, before the National Industrial Court, Lagos, in Suit No: NICN/ LA/228/2016 – Ikeja Electric Plc V National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), Joe Ajaero, U.A. Dubagiri and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
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