Due to an unpaid payment of about N41 billion escrowed with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has shut down the activities of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) indefinitely.
“The industrial action would be stopped only when our demands are granted,” the Union’s FCT chairman, Comrade Godfrey Aba, told The Nation from the closed AEDC Headquarters in Abuja.
According to him, the action has resulted in a power outage in all AEDC franchise areas, including Niger, Nassarawa, Kogi, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
According to him, the Federal Ministry of Power should have interfered in the industrial crisis before the strike.
“We are still waiting for them to engage with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to guarantee that this money is released so that not only our personnel will receive their rights, but our clients will begin to enjoy better services,” Aba added.
“It’s roughly N40 billion,” he responded when asked how much AEDC owes him. The CBN is scheduled to release N2.5 billion every month. And it’s now been over two years.”
He recalled that the CBN escrowed the Discos’ accounts in 2019 and that the Apex bank agreed to release N2.5 billion monthly to the firm.
