Employees Picket Ikeja Electric Offices Over Sack

Members of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) Wednesday barricaded Ikeja Electric’s (IE) offices across Lagos including the headquarters in Alausa, leading to thousands of IE’s customers experiencing the discomfort of extended darkness.

The picketing, which stated before 8:00a.m. and continued till about 5:00p.m. was as a result of the retrenchment of about 40 workers by the electricity distribution firm.

It was gathered IE recently conducted job performance appraisal in which some workers were promoted while those considered to have underperformed were relieved.

Angered by the sack, the union mobilized placard carrying members, who resisted customers and workers access to the company’s offices.

It took the intervention of security agencies for IE workers to be allowed into the premises.

Reacting to the picketing, IE said it had to shut down nine feeders serving about three thousand customers within Ikeja for safety concerns.

It described the protest as self-serving, noting that about 300 workers were promoted last week across all cadres, while over 500 workers were recruited in the last one year.

Head, Corporate Communications, Felix Ofulue, said: “When NUEE chooses to cripple socio-economic activities of over a million households, for issues that can be resolved through dialogue, one then wonders if the motives are as selfless as they claim.

How do you plunge a country’s commercial nerve center into darkness because of a few of your members who have been separated from the business for cogent reasons?

It is an abuse of privilege to picket.

Ofulue apologized to customers for the disruption of service, assuring that the company would continue to partner stakeholders for improved service delivery.