By: Hassan Dauda
Eagle Brain Youth Transformative and Development Initiative has accused Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) of selfishness and insensitivity to its workers and customers as the industrial action embarked by the electricity union has sent four states in Northern Nigeria into five days blackout.
The group also said that it was suing the company for damages as a result of what it members suffered during the unannounced power outage based on the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) Act of 2005.
The statement which was signed by the chairman of the group yesterday in Kaduna, Daniel Ejembi reads as follows:
“As the industrial action embarked by workers of Kaduna Electric Company (KEDCO) entered its fourth day Eagle Brain Youth Transformative and Development Initiative wished to make an intervention at this point.
“It is very disturbing that four days after workers of the company down tools over what is their legitimate rights to protest unfair, inhuman and illegal actions of the management of KEDCO, all we get from the management are sore Press Statements that portend even darker days ahead.
“As capitalists who see huge profit and business expansion above the dignity of the human person and service to society, we are not surprised at the leisurely pace of their negotiations with critical stakeholders in the fray as Nigerians keep suffering in darkness.
“Today, over 2 millions homes in Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina and Kebbi states and hundreds of thousands of businesses that largely depend on KEDCO are experiencing severe losses in hundreds of Millions of Naira daily.
“For KEDCO to heartlessly say that it sacked 450 workers, not 900 as claimed by the workers union, is to emphasize how it cares very little for the financial, economic and social security of its workers that endanger their lives daily to deliver power to its customers.
“You don’t sack rightfully engaged workers in hundreds and at a go like chasing away a horde of flies and try to downplay numbers.
“KEDCO cannot also owe workers all kinds of areas including Five years pension while netting billions in profit every quarter, outside the billions of Naira in subsidies it enjoys from the Federal Government and not expect the workers it has enslaved to react when backstabbed without any warning.
“The management of the company ought to know that it is running an essential, critical service to Nigerians and ought to have behaved in a manner that would not plunge its customers into undue suffering by selfishly provoking its staff into this industrial action.
“Apart from that, protracted darkness in some parts of the affected states is also of grave security concerns at a time that kidnapping and banditry is reigning supreme in these affected states.
“The Chairman of KEDCO, Aminu Abubakar Suleiman, his Board and management have alternative power sources and as such may not give a hoot to their suffering customers no matter how long this strike continues.
“The Board and Management of KEDCO should bear all responsibility for the huge losses incurred by customers of KEDCO.
“We are hereby calling on all customers of KEDCO to come together, form a group and take legal steps to redeem all their losses for these dark days based on their rights as enshrined in the 2005 Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) Act.
“As for Eagle Brain Youth Transformative and Development Initiative, we shall exercise our rights in court to remediate all the calculated damages that our members have suffered as a result of the callous actions of the Board and management of KEDCO for the days that this industrial action lasts. This therefore serves as an advanced notice to KEDCO.
“Eagle Brain Youth Transformative and Development Initiative is an association of young and dynamic youths with passion for free, safe and progressive Nigeria where social justice, rule-of-law and development reign,” reads the statement in conclusion.
Middle-Belt Times 