Former employees of Kaduna Electric on Monday, staged a protest demanding the payment of their alleged 88 months’ outstanding pension arrears and entitlements.
The aggrieved former employees carried placards with inscriptions reading “Kaduna Electric, you violated your condition of service,” “Pay us our 88 months outstanding pension arrears,” and “Our children are out of school due to non-payment of our entitlements.”
The group’s spokesperson and former staff in the Human Resources Department, Makera Office, Christiana Emmanuel Ambi, while speaking to newsmen, alleged that the management of Kaduna Electric acted unjustly by refusing to honour the terms of service used to disengage them.
The company, she said, cited its condition of service in terminating their appointments but failed to abide by the same policy when settling their entitlements, explaining that the condition of service clearly stipulates that staff who served between five and nine years are entitled to proportional benefits, while those who served nine years and above should receive 35% of their full emoluments per annum.
She further explained that many of them had put in nine years and more, but the company is insisting on paying them only 20%, which contradicts the agreement it signed with them.
Several meetings, according to Ambi, had been held between the disengaged staff, the management of Kaduna Electric, the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, where discussions were centered on modalities for payment, stressing that despite the meetings, no concrete action had been taken by the company.
Ambi lamented that the prolonged non-payment of benefits has left many former workers and their families in severe hardship with their children out of school, and some of them battling health challenges without support.
The protesters also questioned the rationale behind Kaduna Electric’s continued recruitment of new staff despite claiming financial incapacity to pay those already disengaged.
She called on the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, and the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Kaduna Electric, Dr Abubakar Umar Hashidu, to urgently intervene and ensure that justice is served.
The protesters vowed to sustain their demonstrations until the management settles all outstanding entitlements and provides a clear breakdown of payments made so far.
As of the time of this report, efforts to reach any management member of Kaduna Electric has been unsuccessful.
