Blackout in Kaduna as Labour kickoff 5-day labour warning strike

The Management of Kaduna Electric has revealed that the current power outage in the state is caused by the five-day warning strike embarked upon by labour unions.

Abdulazeez Abdullahi, the company’s head of corporate communications, I’m a statement on Sunday said the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) disconnected the power supply to comply with the strike.

The state Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, had in April sack 4,000 workers across the 23 LGAs of the state, citing the fiscal reasons as justifications.

But the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) protested the move and have resorted to grounding activities with a warning strike starting from Monday.

Speaking on the blackout and the proposed strike in the statement, Abdullahi urged residents to be wary of criminals who may want to take advantage of the blackout as an avenue to vandalise power supply installations.

“In compliance with the NLC directive, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, has knocked off all our 33KV lines in Kaduna State,” Abdullahi said.

“Consequently, we are appealing to all communities, security agencies and vigilante groups to be vigilant so that men of the underworld will not cash in on the situation to vandalise power supply installations.

“Any suspicious movement around distribution sub-stations (transformers) should be reported to the relevant security agency.”

The aviation workers had also threatened to withdraw their services at the Kaduna airport during the strike, while the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) directed its members to halt their services in the state.

However, Jafaru Sani, Kaduna commissioner of local government, and Bariatu Mohammed, head of service, have insisted on the controversial policy of the government saying the state’s high wage bill was not sustainable.

“This government was not elected to devote most public funds to paying government workers and treat that as its defining governance mission, to the detriment of developing the state and its people,” they had said in a statement.

Here’s another statement issued below by the General Manager of the company.