By Ovat Abeng
Anambra State workers under the aegis of the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), on Monday shutdown offices of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Enugu Electricity Development Company (EEDC) in Awka to protest over the Band A, Band B, Band C and Band E tariff hike.
It was gathered that the Union leaders stormed the two offices with various placards with inscriptions such as; “we say no to Band A, B, C and E tariff, all Nigerians are equal, Nigerians demand immediate reversed of the electricity tariff, electricity tariff is an inhumane treatment and economic sabotage, let the poor breathe, NERC – enough is enough let Nigerians breathe, among others singing and calling for the reversal of the tariff.
In their separate interview with Journalists shortly after the picketing, the State Chairman of NLC, Comrade Humphrey Nwafor and his TUC counterpart, Comrade Chris Ogbonna, said the picketing is going on simultaneously nationwide to demand a better Nigeria.
According to them, “we are embarking on the protest to register our dissatisfaction and to informed the Federal Government to returned the electricity management back to the public domain as it is before.
“We strongly believe that the electricity challenges will be best managed in the hands of a public servant than private. Nigerians are seriously suffering of this. The consistent increased is adding too much pains to the masses.
“So we are calling on the President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to urgently do the needful by reversing the sector back to public servants to be in charge of, to avoid a total breakdown,” the bodies summited.
It was also gathered that the exercise also took place at Onitsha and Nnewi respectively.
