Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) has listed conditions that would warrant the re-admission of its expelled members.
Chris Okonkwo, president-general of SSAEAC, said the association would only be ready to receive penitent member of the union’s splinter group. Okonkwo, who addressed journalists in Lagos, said members of the group were recently expelled for violating the union’s constitution by organising illegal meeting and making unsubstantiated allegations against the national leadership of the union.
According to Okonkwo, the splinter group purportedly organised a National Executive Council (NEC), meeting, where they claimed to have impeached the president-general, (Okonkwo) and terminated the appointment of Nnamdi Ajibo, the secretary-general. They were also said to have lied against the president-general that he was planning to change venue of the national delegates conference planned for 2022 from Kano to Abuja.
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The group, the leadership further stated, convened a meeting on July, 3, and wrote a letter to the registrar of trade unions (RTU), copied the ministers of labour and power, inspector general of police as well as the director-general of the Department of the State Service (DSS).
The association said their actions were borne out of greed, lack of value and desperation to liquidate the union and described the purported impeachment of the president-general as “null and void.”
Okonkwo, nevertheless, said SSAEAC would be willing to review their case if they retrace their steps and be willing to operate within the constitution of the union rather than seek to take power through the backdoor.
The tussle, according to Irene Aghalokpe, deputy president general (South) of SSAEAC, started when some members of the union raised the issue of insecurity in the northern part of the country, with the opinion that the venue of 2022 national delegates’ conference might be changed from Kano to Abuja which was still open for deliberation, “but instead of contributing to the observations, they (expelled members) signed and wrote to Transmission Company (TCN), DSS, and police. They wrote outside the union.
When the leadership asked them to apologise, they started insulting the president, and the leadership of the union without any regard for the constitution and said they cannot retrace their steps. So, we wrote to them according to the constitution. The committee took the decision that they should be suspended,” Aghalokpe said.
