There was total blackout in Osun State on Wednesday as workers under the aegis of the National Union Electricity Employees (NUEE) shut down the transmission facility of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), located in Osogbo.
The shutdown followed a strike action declared by the leadership of NUEE to protest what they termed indifference posture of the federal government to their demands.
Findings by the Nigerian Tribune indicated that the shut down of TCN facilities by the industrial action around 11.00 am affects the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, which would also have a negative effect on the energy supply to some states in the South West.
Following the development, many industrial concerns, small and medium scale enterprises, including artisans who depend on electricity groaned as their operations were grounded due to lack of power.
Speaking during a chat with journalists over the shutdown, the national officer of the NUEE, Comrade Segun Babatunde said “our action is the consequence of the government keeping mute over the industrial issues we have raised severally and those issues have remained unattended to up to this moment.”
According to him, “we believe that we should be able to put our demands on the table and jaw-jaw with a view to achieving results at the end of the day.
If you now communicate with the government and the government is not saying anything on the issues we are agitating about, we don’t have any other option than to call out workers to embark on strike.”
“It will interest you to know that before we embark on strike, we initially gave 21 days ultimatum and when there was no response, we added seven days to it.
