Electricity workers down tools in PHED, as power outage persist

Electricity consumers in Akwa Ibbom State are experiencing prolonged power outage following the decision of the senior staff members of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) to embark on a strike as the company announced major faults.

This is coming on the heels of an ‘earth fault’ announcement on key transmission stations that has affected all parts of the state resulting in residents being without public power supply for days.

According to a statement signed by PHED management, the power outage is due to earth fault on Itu, Uyo, Eket and Ekim transmission stations.

“We are currently working with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) maintenance crew to rectify the fault and restore supply as soon as the work is completed,” the state said.

PHED announced the earth fault on August 14, while its senior staff members had embarked on strike two days earlier.

A statement by Innocent Douglas, deputy general secretary of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Workers Companies, TCN, Benin region, directed the shutdown of PHED facilities in all their franchise states to give room for unbiased dialogue and negotiations.

It added that they took the decision due to irreconcilable differences between the labour union and the management of PHED.

The statement read in part, “Based on this, we encourage staff of PHED to stay off offices except those required to man the gates of regional and feeder offices”.

However, Akwa Ibom State owns the Ibom Power Plant, a power generating company with 100 megawatts capacity supply to the national grid but the company is currently undergoing an audit of its activities initiated by the state government.