There is nationwide power outage in Nigeria as the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN confirms “delibrate” and complete shutdown of the National Grid by electricity workers union following the indefinite strike over national minimum wage.
The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC commenced a nationwide industrial action on Monday in protest against the N60,000 minimum wage proposal of the Federal Government.
TCN spokesperson, Ndidi Mbah who announced the shutdown of the National Power Grid in a statement issued on Monday morning said the action was deliberately done by the workers.
The statement was titled, “Grid shutdown: Union Deliberately shuts down the National Grid.” It reads in part, “The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby informs the general public that the labour union has shut down the national grid, resulting in a blackout nationwide. The national grid shut down occurred at about 2.19am this morning, June 3, 2024.
“At about 1:15am this morning, the Benin Transmission Operator under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN reported that all operators were driven away from the control room and that staff that resisted were beaten while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room. Without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Centre was brought to zero.
“Other transmission substations that were shut down by the labour union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba, and Osogbo transmission substations. Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union.”
On the power generating side, TCN said the power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants.
“The Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency. The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19am.
“At about 3.23am, however, TCN commenced grid recovery, using the Shiroro Substation to attempt to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation. The situation is such that the labour union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.
“We will continue to make effort to recover and stabilise the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, passengers are stranded as flight operations from the domestic wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos were disrupted Monday morning as unions in the aviation sector embarked on an indefinite strike in compliance with directive of Organised Labour.
The main gates leading into the two terminals of the domestic airport were locked as passengers as well as crew members were not allowed into the airport
Some passengers who had come as early as 5.30am for their flights are stranded at the airport, with the situation leading to serious traffic on all roads leading in and out of the airport.
Organised Labour has given all international flights flying Nigeria to other countries 24 hours to round up all scheduled routes as their operations will be shutdown after the deadline.
General Secretary, National Union of Air Transport Employees, Ocheme Aba disclosed this to AIT.live via in a telephone conversation stating that the time frame is to allow all aircrafts currently heading to various destinations to be received by ground handlers and other related departments for safe landing.
Aba however says such grace is not applicable to domestic flights across the country as all local aircraft have been grounded since 12am June 3.
The Organised Labour had handed the Federal Government a May 31 deadline to reach an agreement on the new minimum wage.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
EDITOR: TIENABESO BIBIYE
