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The controversy surrounding last month’s electricity tariff hike is yet to fade as the Nigerian workers, on Monday, disrupted activities in the power sector, demanding its reversal.
It had been reported that the organized labour picketed offices of all eleven Electricity Distribution Companies and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC.
In Abuja, the protest was led by Joe Ajaero, NLC president, to the Ministry of Power and the NERC headquarters.
Offices of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company were also shut down as workerswere prevented from resumption.
Similarly, they picketed the offices of the eleven discos in Kwara, Lagos, Kaduna, Plateau, Enugu, Sokoto and other parts of the country.
Ajaero, during the picketing, said NERC should review its methodology for tariff increases in the electricity sector.
He noted the tariff hike is the fundamental cause of the country’s soaring headlines and food inflation, which stood at 33.20 per cent and 40.01 per cent in March.
In response to the organized labour’s one-day protest, the Nigerian Government has said that it is ready to negotiate with organized labour.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Power, Mrs Florence Eke, in a telephone interview with DAILY POST after workers crippled activities at the Ministry of Power, said the Federal Government, through the Permanent Secretary, Mr Mamman Mahmuda, had convened a consultative meeting for the next week with the organized labour and stakeholders to address the matter.
The Ministry has asserted that its responsibility is to make policy while agencies, in this case, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, and other agencies implement it.
“The Ministry will invite all stakeholders for a proper consultation by next week,” she said.
However, the Nigeria Labour Congress spokesperson, Benson Upah, journalist that the government was supposed to consult before implementing the April 3 electricity tariff hike.