Soldiers, police sorrounded PHCN offices; No PHCN staff could enter the Office

A contingent of the Nigerian Army and the police were on Friday deployed to take over the headquarters of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria over a dispute with the Federal Government on their pension.

The soldiers, numbering about 50, stormed the headquarters of PHCN in the early hours of Friday and took strategic positions before workers could resume for work.

When our correspondent visited the place, the soldiers had sealed the entrance to the premises located in Maitama.

The workers were restricted to the street as they were not allowed to enter the building. Some of them converted the ambulance of PHCN to a music station that entertained both staff and passersby.

Chairman of the National Union of Electricity Employees, FCT chapter, Mr. Wisdom Nwachukwu, regretted that soldiers could take over the headquarters of the company during a civilian administration.

He told SATURDAY PUNCH that the soldiers asked any worker that wanted to enter the building to fill a pension form.

Nwachukwu said, “The Federal Government appointed Hassan Sunmonu to mediate between the workers and the government on labour issues before the privatisation of the PHCN successor companies. The last meeting that held last month ended in a deadlock.

The Minister of Power, Prof. Bath Nnaji, had while inaugurating an investigative panel on the PHCN pension scheme on Wednesday, said the scheme running in PHCN was illegal and contrary to Pension Reform Act of 2004.

He said while negotiating with workers on their severance terms, the Federal Government discovered that the pension scheme was not being properly run, thus necessitating the inauguration of the panel.

Responding to questions from newsmen on the issue, Nnaji said reforms must go on, adding that anybody that stood in the way of reforms in the power sector was against the progress of the nation.

Meanwhile, the FG has told a high powered United States’ delegation that there was no power alignment in the power stations conceived and started by past administrations and attributed this to the seeming intractable challenges in the electricity sector.

“We still need support,” Nnaji told the delegation led by the Deputy Assistant to the President of United States, Dr. Michael Froman, a former Managing Director of Citigroup.

Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress called on the FG to withdraw soldiers from the facilities of the PHCN and begin dialogue with the workers.

The President of the NLC, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar, observed in a statement on Friday that negotiations between the FG and the National Union of Electricity Employees had broken down as a result of unresolved labour issues.

However, the National Assembly has scheduled a meeting with labour on Monday to find a lasting solution to the problem.