At last, workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Kaduna zonal office, North-West Nigeria, have received their severance package.

The non-payment of the severance benefits had generated tension and anxiety in the organisation, resulting in resistance to any visit by investors or officials of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

An account officer in Doka Unit who pleaded for anonymity confirmed to our reporter of receiving her First Bank alert around 1:30 p.m. today, shortly after another prayer session by the workers in Kaduna.

“I have just received alert of over N6 million credited to my account as my severance pay that has been long over due. I am very grateful to God,” another account staff from Kawo Unit was also heard telling other colleagues.

Thousands of workers of the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDC), a PHCN subsidiary, had earlier in the day gathered at the zonal office in Kaduna to pray over what they described as “the unrepentant attitude of the Federal Government to tell Nigerian’s the truth about their entitlement.”

The prayer amid heavy security was informed by the Federal Government’s decision to hand over the KEDC to private investors today. The Kaduna Disco (Distribution Company) was won by Northwest Power Ltd during the privatisation exercise.

The National Vice President of the National Union of Electricity Employees, North/West, Comrade Sikamta Ali Mshelinga, had in an interview said the workers were ready to lose their lives in the fight for their entitlements.

“We are not here to make or cause any trouble; we are only for what is rightfully ours but if the situation gets sour, I can assure you, we are ready to lose our lives in the fight over our entitlements,” he had said, adding:

“This prayer is coming at the heel of the pronunciation from the FG which says they have paid all PHCN workers their severance package only that PHCN are trying to be difficult. We want to pray here to God to intervene and be on all those liars, those liars that call themselves leaders that are not ashamed of themselves to come out and tell the whole world these kinds of blatant liars.

“As I speak to you, no single soul has received N1 from Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi states from the FG in the name of severance pay and they are saying they have paid every staff. We want them to come out and tell the world who and who they have paid, they can even publish the names.

“In the Transmission Company of Nigeria, no worker nationwide has received any money from the FG. The government we have in Nigeria is not a sincere government it is a dumb and deaf government, there was an agreement earlier last year which was agreed that all workers should remain where they are until all labor related issues are solved and no handing over should be done. But unfortunately, they have not even one out of all the agreements and yet they are still going on with the handing over.”

However, many staff confirmed to our reporter that they have started receiving bank alerts for the payment of their entitlements, barely two hours after the protest and prayers.

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