Electricity tariff: Ngige to meet labour over protest

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige,

will hold a joint meeting with leaders of the Nigeria Labour

Congress and top executives of Electricity Distribution

Companies next week to avert the planned picketing of the

Discos by members of the NLC.

The Labour had said that it would begin a nationwide

picketing of the Discos on Monday.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment, in a statement on

Friday, said Ngige had intervened in the dispute between

Labour and power firms.

The statement, signed by the Deputy Director (Press),

Samuel Olowookere, quoted Ngige as giving the hint while

defending the ministry’s budget before the Senate

Committee on Employment Labour and Productivity.

The Minister said, “We have got their letter and have invited

them for discussions, including electricity distributions

companies and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory

Commission.”

The Trade Union Congress, the NLC and civil society

organisations had planned to picket electricity distributions

companies to oppose tariff increase.

The groups said the tariff hike contravened the agreement

they had reached with the power firms during the

privatisation of the electricity companies.

They also said that there was a subsisting suit dated May

28, 2015 by the Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High

Court in Ikoyi, Lagos in the case of Toluwani Yemi-Adebiyi

Vs NERC, in which the power firms had been ordered not to

carry out any tariff increase pending the determination of

the suit.