Members of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) shut down offices of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Enugu Electricity Development Company (EEDC) in Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi in Anambra State on Monday to protest over the Band A, Band B, Band C and Band E tariff hike.
Voice of Nigeria (VON) 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 reversal of the electricity tariff’, ‘electricity tariff is an inhuman 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.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the protest, the State Chairman of NLC, Comrade Humphrey Nwafor and his TUC counterpart, Comrade Chris Ogbonna, said the protest is going on simultaneously nationwide to demand for a better Nigeria.
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According to them, we are embarking on the protest to register our dissatisfaction and to urge the Federal Government to return the electricity management back to the public domain as it was before now.
“We strongly believe that the electricity challenges will be best managed in the hands of a public servant than private. Nigerians are seriously suffering from this. The consistent increase is adding too much pain to the masses.
“So, we are calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to urgently do the needful by reversing the sector back to public servants to take charge, to avoid a total breakdown of law and order,” he said.
