The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has provided answers as to why aggrieved members resorted to industrial action on Monday. 

The union on Monday morning shut down operations of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), causing a major blackout in Abuja, Niger, Nassarawa and Kogi states.

Aggrieved over N41billion debt owed its members by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the NUEE embarked on industrial action.

Peoples Gazette reached out to Oyebode Fadipe, AEDC spokesperson, who said he had no comment, other than to apologise to subscribers, noting the AEDC was doing everything within its power to restore electricity. 

When asked if it was true the CBN was owing electricity workers N41 billion, he declined to comment and asked our reporter to direct questions to the NUEE, saying they were in a better position to provide answers.

The Gazette asked Godfrey Abah, FCT Chairman of the union, on why the CBN wasn’t charged to court to settle their outstanding entitlement instead of disrupting power supply to millions of its customers.

Mr Abah said that lawsuit would be a futile battle as the only language the government understood was strike.

He said if NUEE had sued CBN, the case may not have a major headway in the next five years, noting that the apex bank had the funds to hire the best lawyers while NUEE workers would be languishing in penury.

He said Nigeria’s slow judicial system was unreliable to hasten the payment of outstanding fees to workers.

Mr Abah’s assertion proved to be true as CBN and major stakeholders quickly summoned a meeting with the union members to suspend the day-old strike.

All parties reached a truce after the CBN promised to make outstanding payments within 21 days, eventually leading to the suspension of the strike.