LABOUR PETITIONS POWER MINISTER OVER SACKED CEOS
Senior Staff Association of Electricity Allied Companies, SSAEAC, has kicked against recent sack of four of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, by the Minister of Power, arguing their removal was politically motivated.
The umbrella body for the senior PHCN workers, said it had written a letter of protest to the Power Minister, asking for their reinstatement and doubted the Federal Government's plan to revitalise the power sector.
President of SSAEAC, Comrade Bede Opara, decried the arbitrariness of the Minister and questioned the yardstick used to determine the performance of the removed CEOs.
He said, 'We have written a protest letter to the Minister of Power to make further in depth investigations to determine the appropriateness of the recent action by the management of PHCN so that officers who had served meritoriously in various capacities and rose to the position of CEOs are not disgraced out of office for no tenable reason.
'We have also made it known to the Minister, not to create doubt in our mind as to believe that other reasons which had been mentioned to us warranted the action, because for now, there is apprehension that the trend has just started, and since precedence has been made, more arbitral disengagement may unfold soonest.'
In the case of CEO, Lagos, the affected officer Justus Obilomo instituted a functional system as well as creating a customer forum to support his high performance index, while his cash collection in May 2011 before the increase in tariff was N1.8billion, making it the highest cash collection as against N1.3billion before he took over the office.
'Also, in the case of CEO in Jos, everyone in the country knows that Jos is a trouble zone, yet the affected CEO, was able to move collection from N300million to N500 million'
Opara, who emphasized that power had remained stable and improved substantially in the Benin zone during the tenure of George Chiatula, insisted that the affected CEO increased cash collection from N800million monthly to above N1billion, while the business units increased from N9million to N11million.
On service level agreement, the affected CEO had always scored 70 per cent and above culminating in the issuance of two letters of commendation to him for outstanding performance by the management of PHCN.