#Electricity #workers protest, #demand severance #pay from BPE

Electricity workers, under the auspices of the National Union of Electricity Employees of Nigeria, on Thursday stormed the Bureau of Public Enterprises in Abuja to protest the failure of the government to pay the severance allowance of over 1,000 members of the union.

Following the privatisation of successor companies carved out of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, the Federal Government had paid off the workers their entitlements as the management of the companies moved to private sector operators.

In the process of the payment, a total of 1,169 had not been paid.

During the demonstration, National President of NUEE, Mr. Mansur Musa, decried the non-payment of the severance benefits to the members, saying this had had brought untold hardship to the workers.

Responding, Director General of the BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, said 46,744 out of the 47,913 bona-fide staff, representing 98 per cent of the workers, had so far been paid their entitlements, amounting to N373, 170, 291,200.38.

Dikki said only 1,169 of the 47,913 workers of the defunct PHCN had yet to be paid.

He said the outstanding number included workers that had left before the severance payment began; those being processed for validation; and those yet to be identified by PHCN as bona-fide workers and thus not verified.

The BPE boss added that 2,791 retired staff of the PHCN, representing 65 per cent of the retirees, had been paid N16, 414,926,902.38 with an outstanding number of 1,516 retirees.

According to him, the number is made up of those who have so far failed to turn up for verification; those still undergoing further verification and the next of kin of deceased staff that have so far not been able to produce the letters of administration.

Dikki said for the active staff, the number of beneficiaries was processed in 30 batches while for the retirees, it was in 11 batches.

He appealed to the over 1,000 workers of the PHCN, who have yet to present themselves for verification, to come forward for the exercise as the government would not pay any one who had not been verified.