By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi.
Disengaged staff of the disbanded Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) have accused National Union of Electricity Employee (NUEE) of betraying its members across the country for non-payment of their terminal benefits.
They have therefore urged President Muhammadu Buhari to toe the path of honour and investigate the complicity in the non-payment of their benefits since their arbitrary disengagement from the services of the failed PHCN.
A spokesmen of the disengaged workers, Engineer Lucas Hamidu who made the plea while addressing newsmen at the NUJ premises weekend in Bauchi, said several disengaged PHCN staff have died in poverty waiting for their benefits
EngrHamidu also faulted the immediate past administration at the centre for introducing privatization even when it did not articulate its negative impact on the nation socio-economic and political development.
He regretted that FG in collaboration with NUEE lacked the interest to properly work out plans before PHCN was finally taken over by the current management which mark the lamentation of the aggrieved staff
“It’s a catastrophe to note that PHCN pensioners now collect only N4000 per month instead of N80, 000 and this has forced their children out of school with others ejected out of their rented apartment and yet FG and electricity management appears not to address the ugly trend” Hamidu stressed.
The aggrieved staff recalled that they submitted a memorandum in respect of their benefits to the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Power in October, 2015, and drew its attention on their grievances yet nothing has been done.
They prayed for the payment of staff gratuity, release of 10% equity share holding, payment of bulk claims, payment of pension deductions, among others, as some staff re-engaged for the past 6 months were yet to be paid any salary.
The PHCN staff further urged the President to as a matter of urgency investigate the circumstance attributable to their travails nation-wide, apparently to rekindle the past glory of the so-called privatization exercise.
It decried the alarming increment in electricity tariff even when Nigeria’s sources of energy are not imported and has been working, describing the consequence as cheating the subscribers
They therefore cautioned the management of the electricity in the country to be above board and settle the entitlement of the disengaged PHCN staff.
