Following an early warning by the National Union of Electricity that it had been directed by the Nigeria Labor Congress to join in the warning strike, they have been a total blackout in Kaduna state which took place midnight Saturday. This is coming after NLC has pleaded with the government of Malam Nasir El-Rufai to revoke its policy of the sack workers ahead of a five-day warning strike which is to commence from midnight today (Sunday).
The Transmission Company of Nigeria has knocked off all the 33KV lines in the state in compliance with the directive to ensure a total economic shutdown.
The Kaduna state government has reiterated on Saturday that it will not succumb to blackmail and insisted that it was not sustainable to spend 84 percent to 96 percent of its federal allocation on salaries and personnel costs. More so, the government stated that it has been subjected to a campaign of lies, and false claims that its rightsizing exercise affected 4,000 workers and stopped the payment of minimum wage.
A statement issued by the discos' Head Abdulazeez Abdullahi on Sunday appealed to all communities, security agencies, and vigilante groups to vigilant to hinder hoodlums to use this medium in vandalizing the power supply installations.
“Any suspicious movement around distribution sub-stations [transformers] should be reported to the relevant security agency.
“We have the collective responsibility to protect these critical national assets in our neighborhood,” he stated.
“Our concern is hinged on the fact that, as a private corporate organization, we are inadvertently caught in the middle of the impasse.
“The workers union to which our staff belongs is affiliated to the NLC hence they may be obliged to join any strike action called.
“We are on the other hand, a privately owned company that is not a party to the dispute. We offer a critical utility service the withdrawal of which will cause untold hardship on the citizenry,” the management stated on Saturday.
