6th December, 2021
By Constance Imasuen
Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), on Monday apologised to consumers over power disruption in its franchise areas, following a strike by its workers.
The DISCO assured consumers of speedy resolution of the strike by its employees that led to the power disruption.
AEDC’s franchise area include Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger states and the FCT.
“Following the industrial action embarked upon by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), power supply to some of our areas of operation, especially those on the 11 Kilovolt network, were affected.
“We would also like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience and disruption.
“We assure our customers that all hands are on deck to resolve the issues that prompted this action,’’ Mr Oyebode Fadipe, AEDC’s General Manager, Corporate Communication, stated in Abuja.
In another development, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) stated that it had enough bulk power to deliver to AEDC to off-take and distribute to its customers.
Its General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs Ndidi Mbah blamed power outage being experienced in AEDC’s franchise area to a shutdown of AEDC’s facilities by its in-house workers union.
“The areas under AEDC franchise include Abuja, Nasarawa, Kogi, parts of Edo, Niger and Kaduna States.
“TCN regrets this disruption and assures Nigerians that normal bulk power delivery to AEDC will be restored as soon as the injection substations are opened for onward electricity supply to consumers,’’ she stated.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Correspondent who visited AEDC headquarters reports that the office was locked and only members of the NUEE were seen outside the gate.
Mr Opalowa Eleojo, Organising Secretary, NUEE said the strike resulted from pensions contributions deducted from workers’ salaries for 20 months but not remitted to their Pension Fund Administrators.
He also said that the thrift and cooperative society deductions for eight months were also not remitted by the AEDC.