Ike Nnachi, Abakaliki
There has been total blackout across the South-East as staff of electricity companies commenced strike on Wednesday.
Spokesperson of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), Emeka Ezeh, stated this in a statement on Wednesday.
The strike was called by National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) over welfare issues.
Mr Ezeh said that all feeders in the five South-Eastern states were out due to the situation.
“The industrial strike action embarked upon by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) power stations, operations across the franchise area of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company PLC (EEDC) have been disrupted.
“As a result of this development all our feeders are out of supply and this has affected supply to our esteemed customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States.
“Consultations are ongoing among critical stakeholders in the power sector to address this issue and possibly restore supply,” Ezeh said.
Mr Ezeh urged customers and neighbourhood associations to be vigilant and protect the electrical installations within their environment against elements who might take advantage of the outage to vandalise and loot the installations.
“We, therefore, appeal for continued patience and understanding while this is resolved,” he said.
Members of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) had on Tuesday held a protest, accusing the Federal Government of failing to address staff welfare issues.
The workers converged at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) headquarters in Abuja where they announced that their members would withdraw their services from Wednesday.
The strike is bound to worsen Nigeria’s electricity problems.
The NUEE in a notice signed by the general secretary, Joe Ajaero, urged its members to comply with the directive and stop work from August 17.
The union issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of TCN on May 18, threatening to down tools if its complaints were not resolved.
