*Company Top Shots Use Security To Refuse Journalists Access To Official Response
By Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
A fresh round of protests rocked Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KAEDCO) as disengaged staff members of the firm disrupted the serenity of the company’s headquarters, demanding payment of their benefits by the management.
The benefits total N175 million,the protesters claimed.
Bearing placards showing different inscriptions such as “Umar Abubakar Hashidu pay us our exit token and all our dues and entitlement”, “Kaduna state Governor, you are the mediator, we have confidence in you, your Excellency”, amongst others,the protesters said they were only after their entitlements,left unpaid while they were in the firm’s employ and even after.
Efforts by journalists covering the protest to see the firm’s top management for their own side to the story, were hindered by the company, using security men,who insisted they were acting on “orders from above.”
Addressing journalists, leader of the aggrieved protesters, Mohammed Gora Sani, who said he came from the company’s Zaria zone, disclosed that payment of the said benefits –which schedule was shared previously with them –was meant to have been done on 27 October, 2025.
He said: “Anything contrary to what we agreed with MD, the management last year, we are not going to take it. They said the management now says the money is up to N175 million; so if we agree, they should start paying.
“Some of us have just said that the money should be paid to the junior staff as agreed earlier; some have advised that even the management staff that are affected (by the disengagement), the amount should cut across them.
“But we concluded with the union that even though the money has been shared accordingly, this payment should not pass 27th of this month because that was our agreement with the management and they are aware. They said ‘no problem’.”
He added: “The reason why we are even suspecting management, there’s something hidden in this matter, is that we are yet to know our total benefit. In a normal scenario we should be given the breakdown of our benefit even before the payment.
“That day we talked about the payment advice, that is the breakdown of our benefit, they said already the payment slip is on the process, they are computing, that we will get it in the next 24 hours.
“When we called them, they said ‘no, the payment advice will be shared through our official mail’, that we are going to have it through our mail. But up till now we are yet to receive it till date.”
Restating their demands, Sani said: “What we want now is the management of Kaduna Electric, that is the Chairman, Board of Directors, Umar Abubakar Hashidu, and others should know that we are all educated and intelligent.
“They should give us our payment advice so that we should know our money. That is number one.
“Secondly, the company is owing all the disengaged staff some months of pension arrears which is yet to be remitted into our various pension accounts.
“Thirdly, we agreed that the money should be paid on this Wednesday (that is today). They decided to cut off the amount and send a little amount of money as second payment yesterday night to today in the morning. Not everybody was selected.
“We have levels. But one of our junior staff told me that he received N300,000 today, apart from the N347,000 he received last week Wednesday. And one lady told me that she received N841,000, apart from the N400,000 she received. So we don’t know what management of Kaduna Electric mean.
“This is our right. We are not begging. We are not beggars. It’s our entitlement. We have not offended them. They voluntarily decided to disengage us.
“They have violated their conditions of service. Whatever would pay for the company, favour the company, they will follow it, but anything that would pay for the employees, they will deny the employees their right.
“As I’m talking to you, most of us here, we worked for a period of 10 years; no single promotion, no step, nobody knows his level in this company. Some of our staff have died, waiting for benefits in vain.
“In the first phase, they disengaged 450 staff. When the union embarked on strike, they decided to recall some of us. But currently we thought, according to them, we are 350, but we don’t have the comprehensive list of our staff.”
The protesters therefore appealed to Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani, to urgently intervene “because he was the mediator during the agreement held at the Government House, with the two house unions, in February, and the management of Kaduna Electric.
“And we want to call on the national chapter of the labour union and the people of Kaduna, to please take note of this, because we are not going to leave our benefit.”
*PHOTO CAPTION: Some of the protesters.
