No fewer than 500 workers of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) have been sacked by the management of the organisation.

Some of those sacked were said to be senior staff and they cut across the firm’s offices in Nasarawa, Niger and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

Investigations revealed that the AEDC began serving the sack letters on the affected staff about a week ago, while some others received theirs between Tuesday and Thursday this week.

Those mostly affected by the downsizing were the casual staff who were engaged when the AEDC took over from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), while the affected senior staff were reported to have put in over 35 years of service when their length of services were cumulatively calculated.

The Niger State office of the AEDC was in a sorrowful mood when THISDAY visited the place as those retained sympathised with their retrenched colleagues.

It was gathered however that the management has promised to settle the entitlements of those sacked “very soon”.

When contacted, the AEDC’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Alhaji Ahmed Shekarau, said: “It’s true that some staff of the company have been disengaged as is normal in many organisations undergoing transformation worldwide.”

Giving further reasons for the action, Shekarau said: “The current management of AEDC Plc finds it necessary to replace employees due to deaths, deficiencies in relevant skills, lack of dedication to the company’s customer service charter, among other factors.”

He, however, said: “Contrary to speculations, the number of those affected is far lower than what is being peddled”, but did not say the actual number of staff affected.

According to him, “In the fullness of time, we will issue a press statement confirming the actual number of people affected.”