The Joint Action Front (JAF) has called on the federal government to stop intimidating the leadership of the National Union of Electricity Workers (NUEE) and workers in the electricity sector, and to stop the privatization of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PNCN) immediately.
The Joint Action Front (JAF) has called on the federal government to stop intimidating the leadership of the National Union of Electricity Workers (NUEE) and workers in the electricity sector, and to stop the privatization of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PNCN) immediately.
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The Front made the demands in a statement today in which it condemned the government for its unwarranted attacks on the workers who, it said, have been consistent in their resistance to the government’s desperate agenda of privatization of the power sector.
Referring to a statement by NUEE in which an unknown man with “devices capable of causing explosion” was arrested at its National Secretariat and handed over to the police last Friday, JAF warned that such attacks by the government and its agents will further deepen the insecurity situation in the country.
“JAF wishes to recall the spate of harassment and threat, in the past one year, on members and leadership of NUEE,” the statement said. “We recall, in particular, the deployment of soldiers to PHCN facilities in mid-November 2011 under the guise of national security, but the real intention of the Federal Government (FG) being to forcefully take-over of PHCN and hand it over to their cronies.”
It called on the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress, civil society groups and patriots to join forces with the struggle of the electricity workers to resist the handover of PHCN facilities to the profiteers and the ruling cabals and the recent hike in electricity tariffs.
It reiterated that the power sector can be efficient if it is democratically run, with the involvement of elected representatives of workers and consumers in the management of electricity.
“This is the only way that public resources invested in sector can translate into qualitative improvement in power generation, adequate supply and affordability,” it said.
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